Imogene

'GIRL MOST LIKELY': Four Stars (Out of Five)

Kristen Wiig stars in this comedy film directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (the team behind the Harvey Pekar biography comedy film 'AMERICAN SPLENDOR'). It was written by Michelle Morgan and co-stars Annette Bening, Matt Dillon, Christopher Fitzgerald and Darren Criss. Wiig plays a New York playwright who's fallen on hard times and fakes her suicide in order to try and win her ex-boyfriend back. She instead ends up having to move back home with her mother and little brother. The movie got mostly negative reviews and didn't receive a wide theatrical release but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The film was originally titled 'Imogene', which is the name of Wiig's character. Imogene was an up and coming New York playwright who's career went nowhere quickly and she ends up losing her job and her boyfriend, Peter (Brian Petsos), at the same time. In an attempt to win Peter back she stages her suicide but is instead ordered to move back in with her mother, Zelda (Bening), and younger brother, Ralph (Fitzgerald), temporarily. Once home she finds her mother is also living with a man claiming to be a secret agent (Dillon), who she's also hooking up with, and a young man named Lee (Criss), who rented out her old room. Things just get more crazy from there as she attempts to get her life back on track.

The film was very nicely directed and the script is clever and smart. I found all the characters to be likable and oddly enjoyable as well as adequately developed. Wiig is a good leading lady and I enjoy her in films like this much more than something like 'BRIDESMAIDS'. Criss and Fitzgerald (who plays a character which seems like it was written for Zach Galifianakis) both stand out in the movie as well and Bening and Dillon are also hilarious in it. The movie is just a really quirky and funny heartfelt film. I'm not sure why it hasn't gotten better recognition but it's definitely one worth seeing.

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"Girl Most Likely" is Imogene (Kristen Wiig); a girl once likely to become the next big playwright in New York City, now she's desperately hanging on to the upper-class lifestyle convinced that it's all about who you know, where you live, and who you are with. A failed attempt of a fake suicide attempt sends Imogene back where she came from. All the way to New Jersey.

It's an indie film with a fairly minimal distribution, which generally means the film is going to try to survive on quirky comedy. Luckily, Wiig has had a decade's worth of experience doing quirky comedy on "Saturday Night Live". Also, luckily the film is more than just a quirky indie comedy. It's very much a character study, and a bit of a quarter- life crisis dramedy thrown in for good measure. Imogene doesn't know herself very well. She once knew she was a good writer, now she just thinks she's a good writer. She once knew she was better than the family she came from, now she just thinks she's better. She also thinks her life will be better if she gets to know her great and successful father whom she doesn't know.

Her home life features comedy from her weird and bizarre mother, Zelda, her weirder and more bizarre new-step-father-like figure, George, and her weird but well-intentioned younger brother, Ralph. There's also a strange man sleeping in her bed.

This strange man is Lee (Darren Criss), who is actually not strange at all. He is a young man mired in a quarter-life crisis who has rented out her room as a place to stay. He represents the romantic angle of Imogene's attempt to get her life back on track, and was actually a very welcome addition to the movie. Lee was much more sane, understanding, and more aware of his place in life than any of the characters. He was exactly the type of guy who could keep Imogene more grounded with her distorted life views.

The comedy is sweet, although at times it can become to quirky to be all that funny. The writing is good, even though at times it can be a little too self-aware to be all the great. But "Girl Most Likely" is a fairly enjoyable journey of a girl who has completely lost her way in life. It focuses on family, ambition and ties it all up with quirky comedy.

This is a film for anyone who has been or knows a struggling artist. It's fantastic and at times a laugh-out-loud funny movie with a charming cast. Kristen Wiig is great and Darren Criss has never looked hotter. Easy to watch and fun and relatable on many levels.

Doesn't require too much thinking, just a nice watch. For everyone complaining that it's not funny enough and leaving bad reviews based on that, just know that funny actors are capable of playing non-comedic roles. This is more of a drama than a comedy but has some funny moments sprinkled throughout. Nothing spectacular, but enjoyable. I've seen it a couple dozen times probably lmao.

Girl Most Likely is full of potential and just like it's heroin, a lot is expected from it. It's a great set up with an amazing cast but where it has all those strengths- it's weaknesses are equal if not stronger.

The film follows Imogene (Kristen Wiig), an unlikable whining 30 year old woman- child. Once a successful up and coming playwright, Imogene is in a major slump. After a fake suicide attempt she is released by the hospital into the hands of her gambling addicted mother (Annette Bening). Imogene is taken against her will from the comforts of New York to where she grew up, a New Jersey boardwalk town, that she hates with a passion. There she finds her mother is dating a younger man who may or may not be a CIA agent (Matt Dillon) and meets an even younger man (Darren Criss) who is renting out her childhood bedroom. When Imogene and her younger brother Ralph (Christopher Fitzgerald) find out their long deceased father is actually alive and well, Imogene makes it her goal to find and reunite with him.

From the get go Girl Most Likely tries to instill in your brain what it is like to be Imogene by some shabby point of view camera work. In fact most of the visual appeal of the film really just rests on the expressive and handsome shoulders of young up and comer Darren Criss who, as the sexy happy go- lucky Lee, represents what Imogene should aspire to be but fails to become.

Wiig, who is known for her eccentric and outrageous characters (Saturday Night Live, Bridesmaids) plays the straight man to Imogene's kooky family. She does not do well as the straight man in this film. Imogene is grumpy, selfish and irrational. She uses her own self sabotaged failure as an excuse to be awful to her family and friends.

Dillon and Bening (The Kids Are All Right) do their best caricatures of their characters, but never really get past the shtick. However, Fitzgerald does a fine job as Imogene's sweet "special" adult brother Ralph, he is so innocently wide eyed and optimistic that you could hate Imogene for not coming to visit in years.

To be fair, there are many funny moments in Girl Most Likely. Awkward laugh out loud gold moments. The film keeps going back and forth between outrageous comedy to slow burning indie, making it an uneven ride. It's about Imogene growing up and learning to love the family she has and not the one she thinks they should be- and she does learn to love them but it's not enough. She has larger issues and the ending doesn't feel resolved for her or an audience who spends 103 minutes trying to root for her.