Dealin' with Idiots

Jeff Garlin's film directorial debut I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (the only reason I say "film" is because he directed John Waters' special This Filthy World in 2006) is a comedy gem I can't help but watch every time I catch it on TV, regardless of what point it is at. There's something about that film, be it the naturalistic dialog, the spry, offbeat relationship Garlin and Sarah Silverman manage to create and withstand for eighty minutes, or the way scenes start and end and pick up the awkwardness of daily life, that keeps me coming back.

Garlin's sophomore film effort, Dealin' With Idiots, will have me doing the same. This is an outrageously funny, often heartbreakingly realistic look at the baffling and lame-brained obsession many parents have with their child's performance in little league baseball. Garlin plays Max Morris, a standup comedian whose kid is enrolled in the local little league team coached by Coach Jim (J.B. Smoove, one of the funniest men in film). Max is dumbfounded by the great lengths parents go to show support and love for their children, but is even more hateful towards how seriously many of them take the game.

When the idea of making a film centered around the eccentricities of the game goes through his head, he winds up staging meetups and interviews with the parents there in order to get acquainted with their lives. Those involve the well-meaning but oppressive man (Richard Kind), his goody two-shoes wife (Jami Gertz), a chic lesbian couple (Gina Gershon and Kerri Kenney-Silver), a rich-guy wannabe (Fred Willard), and several others.

Max's reality is often interrupted (usually during a little league game) by his father (Timothy Olymphant), who transports him to a sharper, darkly-colored version of his current setting to give Max parenting advice or encouragement in his life. While this may seem abrupt, it does provide a more personal, sentimental side to the character at the center of this madness.

Garlin has always been one to assemble a fine cast of people, many of whom are amateurs or lesser known in the field of film. Here, Garlin recruits some of the strongest people I've seen in an indie film in quite sometime. Just the inclusion of the wonderful actresses Jami Gertz and Kerri Kenney-Silver make this feel like a meager but satisfying reunion of the underrated sitcom Still Standing. Not to mention, Bob Odenkirk and J.B. Smoove (who co-starred with Garlin on the work of television brilliance that is Curb Your Enthusiasm) do some great work as the coaches of the little league games, Richard Kind and Fred Willard are always fun to watch, and even faces like Pat Finn and Natasha Leggero turn up to evoke some surprising comedy when necessary.

Not only does Garlin infuse Dealin' With Idiots' promise with great character actors, but he makes fine use of them thanks to a nicely-compiled script (co-written by Peter Murrieta). Perhaps it's from using his improving skills on Curb Your Enthusiasm with close-friend and co-star Larry David and Second City, but Garlin smoothly recreates the same kind of conversational beauty and realism those two works have and marvelously concocts a script that is simultaneously human and exploratory of different mindsets. Often I think this is how the cast would interact with each other when the cameras weren't rolling. The film hesitates not to explore the different lifestyles of the characters here, which is a huge step in the right direction for this kind of a film, being as tricky as that is. Thrown in some tremendous suburban cinematography and hilariously unpredictable scenes and you have another film I'll delay my schedule for to watch again.

The thought of making a comedy centered around little league is one that sets itself up for many, many a joke to be made and this film does justice to its world. Garlin captures this obscure sector of suburban passtime with a sense of personal belonging and unpretentious craft that makes Dealin' With Idiots much more competent on the level of independent comedy. Garlin feels like he was either once a part of this world or is at least wholly familiar with it, judging by the realistic way he writes all the characters and the events that unfold on the diamond. It's almost as baffling how well this film works as a whole as it is watching the people who are hellbent on showing their involvement for something as silly and superfluous as little league baseball.

Starring: Jeff Garlin, Jami Gertz, Richard Kind, Fred Willard, Timothy Olyphant, Bob Odenkirk, J.B. Smoove, Pat Finn, Gina Gershon, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Natasha Leggero. Directed by: Jeff Garlin.

If you're here, you may have already seen this movie. And you probably feel cheated for watching it. It seems like a nepotism filled cast of characters that are not being held to any standards or direction. The word quality never made it to this script. So, was it a comedy? Was it an adventure? Just what was it? Whatever it was, it was filled with worthless scenes and empty acting. I'm willing to bet that some of the actors were sorry for doing this movie. It was BAD.

This morning when I got up I looked at all the torrents that finished while I was asleep. "The Heat" and this movie were 100%, and I watched the better rated of the two first. Despite the fact that that large woman who hasn't been in enough movies for me to remember her name yet is REALLY funny, I felt like I was watching Nickelodeon at that time of the day. Probably because Lethal Weapon was one of the first movies I saw and they've made the same movie every week since then. There's a straight cop and an unconventional one, bad guys fall down dead, drugs are bad. And yet the movie has generally positive reviews and a 7.1 on this site as of last night... Every time I fall for it, it gets harder not to be genuinely angry about the waste of my 90 minutes.

"Dealin' with Idiots", on the other hand, was fracking great. It's got Jeff Garlin, Bob Odenkirk, Fred Willard, JB Smoove, one of the other good characters from 'Curb', and you get to see Gina Gershon for a few minutes too. Nothing about the movie is immature or silly to me. This is not the dad from American Pie doing a spin off with some up and coming teabag from the internet pissing in your face for an hour. This is not 2 but 4 or 5 extremely talented comedians giving great performances with a funny script from a pretty fresh perspective. Jeff Garlin is great, and if someone doesn't watch it because it had a 4.9 on IMDb like it did last night when I downloaded it, this site needs to go away because it's hurting the film industry way more than me and my lack of funds ever will. It's great, if have some brain cells left after watching network TV lately you should do what I can't and pay to see it online. I digress... the ending was a bit abrupt, I thought seeing them at a soccer game would've been a nice touch.

Not the most perfect movie and doesn't aspire to be. However it is unique in the sense that the comedy doesn't come from situations but from the interactions between the characters. The movie is about a comedy writer interviewing little league suburbanite parents who each seem to be suffering from a distinct and hilarious personality disorder. Each of the suburbanites are played by top notch comedian whom I've seen in other roles and have enjoyed. Ironically Garlin plays the straight man to the wacky cast of characters he's forced to deal with.

If I had one criticism, it would be that the film had a lack of an ending. However, despite that fact, it didn't take away from the ride, and during that ride you knew you were experiencing something unique anyway. Uniqueness is what I feel like is missing from most movies and in that, this film delivers. A hidden gem and worth a watch, I look forward to more from Jeff Garlin.

I watched this flick because I recently saw Handsome, which wasnt bad. But Idiots was just......bad. The best thing about it was the credits.