Hazme girar

You know those movies that start out strong and build up a compelling plot, only to lose themselves in the final quarter and go down a convoluted road? This is one of those movies.

The first 2/3 is actually really interesting. It's sort of similar to "don't worry darling"- a seemingly normal universe that gets more and more absurd as time goes on. It's a comedy, mystery, thriller, and romance all wrapped into one.

And then- it's ruined by a rather flat ending. It feels like someone just didn't write an ending. I think this had the potential to be really great, but squandered it. Ultimately, only watch this if you're okay with a good journey but bad destination.

After watching, I have little idea of what the movie was trying to do. About the only takeaway I had was the feeling that I had just wasted my time. The plot was not particularly interesting and for the most part didn't make a lot of sense. I guess the film was attempting to be a comedy, but it just wasn't funny enough to justify that classification. Alison Brie's presence raised my rating by 2-3 stars, but other than her there wasn't much about the movie I can recommend.

This was disappointing. It felt pretty long / poorly edited, it wasn't snappy, it was rarely funny, it was often awkward, it just feels like the script wasn't good enough, the story isn't good enough, and I'm a fan of the absurd and the two female leads. But this was just weak, aimless, and ultimately frustrating.

Amber (Alison Brie) is a manager of an Italian restaurant chain in Bakersfield, California. It's an Olive Garden type situation. Amber wins a corporate retreat trip to Italy. Once she arrives, suspicious situations arise. She is invited by the beloved company owner Nick Martucci (Alessandro Nivola) on a personal trip. She is befriended by his assistant Kat (Aubrey Plaza).

Everybody is capable of doing a bit of quirky and that's what happens. It's mildly funny in its quirkiness. Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza are great. I also love Zach Woods. These are great comedic performers. This has great potential, but the mystery needs some work. It needs some tension. The mystery needs to start sooner and be more involved. The writing needs work.

In the lightest and sometimes strangest comedy of the year, Spin Me Round, a manager of Italian Grille (think Olive Garden), Amber (Alison Brie), wins a trip to a corporate immersion program in Italy, enthusiastic about vacating her humdrum life in Bakersfield, Ca. Other winner managers of varying eccentricities are played by top-drawer comic actors Tim Heidecker, Debby Ryan, Zach Woods, Ayden Mayeri, and Molly Shannon.

Her fantasies are of adventure and maybe hookup, maybe love. She gets all three but not as innocent as she thought they might be. Although this is a whimsical comedy, underneath lies writer/director Jeff Baena and writer Alison Brie's satire of middle-class naivete, ambitions, and the plague of sexual harassment. We can best understand the depression of a pandemic that seemed to deflate our most wishful sailing to a place of dreams.

Given that the exciting adventure of her life may be applying a commercial Alfredo sauce at work to pasta and seeing it "spin around" the microwave, it's easy to see her being a victim of the rich, handsome chain owner, Nick (Alessandro Nivola). That she doesn't see lust in the eyes of American expats at a party, who view her as easy pickings, is about the best indicator of her vulnerability.

That she doesn't pick up on the cheesy way the party host (Fred Amisen) lip-synchs to "The Lady in Red" as she enters the party in her crimson gown is a further hint that Spin Me Around is light fare, and she is not prepared for the absurdity.

With the equally stereotypical Euro-thriller music from composer Pino Donagio, the audience is prepared for the satire of post-Fellini decadence with a dash of humor. The Agatha Christie-like murder speculations lend a further light tone to a story that could have gone into The Twilight Zone.

Spin Me Around is a beautifully photographed bit of fluff, just right for the end of the summer, a pause to reflect on our dreams as they invariably disappoint. Reality bites.