Open Up!

Clocking in at forty minutes, this is a darling indie film about a group therapy meticulously organized and planned by "Heather." A relentlessly cheery do - gooder, Heather's background saw her move from college graduation to a six - year career at Ben & Jerry's to the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps experience has motivated her to help people stateside so she starts this group therapy.

The participants in Heather's group are a motley group of obviously socially inept goofballs. All of them just don't get it regarding how self - absorbed they are. They can't mix with others. They will make you laugh the way Dr. Robert Hartley's patients did on "The Bob Newhart Show" decades ago. Writer / director Marcus Major Niehaus shows you some clever flashbacks as they reminisce about their troubled pasts.

These social misfits in the group need Heather as a catalyst for change, but the way she serves as that catalyst horrifies her. That's all I'll say without spoiling anything. Please watch this movie even if you have to track down writer / director Niehaus to make him an offer for a copy. A native San Franciscan (he filmed this entirely in the Bay Area), he works now in LA and deservedly so.

As I said before, the running time of "Open Up" is just 40 minutes, so Mr. Niehaus couldn't charge THAT much for a copy. Don't let amazon.com stop you from catching this one.