, as stark white-on-black title cards usher in a muted, clarinet-led jazz score of faintly mournful whimsy. Check. It continues: Our protagonist is a dry, lovelorn standup comic, inclined to drop references to Godard and Fellini in casual conversation, working out romantic issues against a backdrop of warm autumnal melancholy. Check, check, check. Yet if Meghie’s easy, amiable film could be seen as a tribute of sorts to the embattled auteur, it also works to pointedly show up his (and many of his peers’) blind spots. It’s all set in California, for one thing, but more importantly, it’s centered entirely on a quartet of African-American millennials — a demographic rarely called upon to carry this kind of generously talky, relationship-focused indie.
“I constantly talk like I’m the supporting actress in a romantic comedy,” says Zadie (Sasheer Zamata), the aforementioned Los Angeles comedienne, in a line that feels loaded in several ways.
“I constantly talk like I’m the supporting actress in a romantic comedy,” says Zadie (Sasheer Zamata), the aforementioned Los Angeles comedienne, in a line that feels loaded in several ways.
- 9/13/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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