All About Nina

Nina Geld (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a troubled standup comic in New York City. She's in an abusive sexual relationship with married obsessive cop Joe (Chace Crawford). She finally decides to escape to Hollywood to audition for a comedy show. She lives with weird west coast type Lake (Kate del Castillo). She gets picked up by nice guy Rafe (Common).

I really like the New York part of the movie. It's dark and troubled. Nina is damaged and Winstead is better than expected. I like her standup. While it's not truly funny, it does highlight her anger issues. Then she heads out to the west coast. Lake is a Hollyweird stereotype. I can live with her. The more problematic character is Rafe. Common is playing too straight and nice. In a way, he's too bland and the initial meeting is a little creepy. The movie tries to do something with Ganja but that actress is doing a comedy bit. Rafe also has some false notes injected into him. The punch feels like a fake incident intended on generating drama. If it wants to do real drama, Joe would get his police brothers to put Rafe in jail. I am a little uncertain about this movie like Larry Michaels. It's a compelling character study. Winstead surprised me with her performance.

"All About Nina" (2018 release; 98 min.) brings the story of Nina, a struggling stand-up comedian looking to break through. As the movie opens, Nina is doing a very R-rated gig in New York, and afterwards we see her with her abusive (and married) boyfriend. Nina decides that she needs a complete change of scenery, and moves to LA. After her first stand-up show there, she gets to know Rafe, a guy who seems to be too good to be true.... At this point we are 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the feature film writing and directing debut of Eva Vives (from Spain). Here, she takes some of her own life experiences and turns them into what initially appears to be a very raunchy comedy. However, the movie changes gear several times. As Nina (who claims she doesn't date) and Rafe get to know each other better, Nina finds herself in a confused spot."You keep being honest, what is wrong with you?", Nina exasperates early on. Later, Nina confesses to a friend that "He's just the right amount of screwed-up". Yet deeper into the movie, we find out more about Nina... All of this might be a bit too much or even suspicious, if it weren't for the dazzling performance of Marie Elizabeth Winstead as Nina. She leaves it all out there (literally) for this role. Common plays the mysterious Rafe a little too aloof in my book. The stand-up scenes (of which there are quite a few) feature both Nina and a number of other wannabe's and are quite good actually. Bottom line: this lil' movie turns out to be quite the character study (as deeply flas as that character may be), with along the way quite a few raunchy stand-up comedy.

"All About Nina" premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and it finally opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this past weekend (for a limited 1 week run, according to the theater). The Sunday early evening screening was attended so-so (about 10 people). That's a shame, but maybe the movie will do better when it opens on other platforms. If you are interested in a character study that is at times dark and at times raunchy funny, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it at the theater (if you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

I had no clue what this movie was about before I watched. Of which I'm very glad. It was refreshing to see such a real, honest, moving story...it had been a while. Great performances. I still think about this movie long after I first saw it.

An honest and moving film. Winstead is the heart of this performance. Do not miss it.

The title says it all: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is excellent in this role. The movie itself, however, is not good. The characters are not developed. The flow is not organic. The structured reveals that lead to the movie's denouement are so forced that authentic emotional truth reduces to cliche. I am less forgiving of movies like this because they (attempt to) manipulate the audience. A better movie would illicit compassion and empathy through the identification with the character, perhaps. All About Nina, rather, vomits telegraphed "depth" (which is, in truth, shallow) all over the screen in an effort to bypass development, story, character arc, and narrative and get to the "point". The truth is that few people are going to climax if their lover doesn't pay attention. Here, the "lover" is the screenwriter/director who doesn't pay attention to any of the needs of the viewer, In an attempt to "move" the viewer, we're manipulated at every turn. The big moment of the movie, however, fell on its face. There was nothing true about it for the story; there was nothing true about it in the development; there was nothing true about it for the character. It was just meant to shock, and by implication explain the rest of the movie. Without the "foreplay" of good writing and characters, I wasn't turned on, and the big climax didn't give me the pleasure or satisfaction that I would have wanted after spending two hours in bed with this movie.

That said, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is terrific as the sexy, acerbic, wounded comedianne. There is more enjoyment in watching fragments of her routines than there is in the rest of the movie.

Is it worth a watch? It isn't. Do I recommend? I most certainly do not. Would I like to see more Mary Elizabeth Winstead? Without a doubt.