Meeting Spencer

I really enjoyed seeing this film. Maybe because I know how insane and whimsical the entertainment business can be, but even if you know nothing about Broadway and movie making you can still have plenty of good laughs. I saw the film with a Los Angeles audience that laughed and howled so much that I think I missed some key lines of dialogue. I'll have to get this one on DVD or go see it again to find out what I missed.

Plus Tambor is just right in the lead role and has great timing and pacing.

If you need a movie were things blow up, don't bother, but if you want to have fun and be transported into a world of creative people fighting for their hopes and dreams, then go see this movie.

It was great to see Jeffrey Tambor carry a movie like this. He shows himself as a great talent, leading an ensemble. The material is a little complex because of being about the inside workings of show business, but it moves and it's funny & smart. It was particularity good seeing old Morgan Shepard as the cranky veteran Broadway star. Also I particularly liked seeing Yvonne Zima as the young and beautiful coat-check girl; I've been a fan of her older sister Madeline for some time. If fact all the women are wonderfully appealing and playful.

"Meeting Spencer" is my kind of movie because it reminds me of the great movies about Broadway and Hollywood like "The Producers" and "All About Eve." It was fluke that I ended up at a preview screening, so I'd keep an extra eye out for this movie.

Meeting Spencer is a hilarious comedy that entertains all movie and theatre goers alike. Set in NYC at Frankie & Johnnies Steakhouse, we walk into the restaurant ready to "seal the deal" on the next Broadway "hit" and exit with a comical change of direction for our theatre production on turn of the century coal miners. At every stage of our evening out at this NYC landmark, whether at the bar or prancing about the restaurant, writers Andrew Kole, Andrew Delaplaine, and Scott Kasdin placed great wit at every spot providing a well-paced film. Director Malcolm Mowbray navigated the audience through each scene masterfully over each careful string of the deal-web without losing even the most novice movie or theatre goer. Jeffrey Tambor is stellar as the theatre director and ringleader for the theatre troupe with his ravishing and impeccable Melinda McGraw. Spencer, our up and coming actor, played by Jesse Plemons, helps us all identify with the novice who is looking to learn the ropes; Plemons certainly manages to climb the ropes fast with assistance of the reporter, played by the voluptuous Jill Marie Jones, and equally enticing actor Mark Harelik, who gives Spencer his confidence to move on. Superlative performances from all others! Whether we follow the sexual innuendos or the interactions between the young and old, the audience is continuously taken on a roller coaster of the "deal"—casting and recasting the leads, enlisting investors, signing on agents, and setting up Hollywood film makers. Meeting Spencer is a crafted film sure to amuse every viewer. Producer and attorney George Braunstein and director Malcolm Mowbray gave us a film with a sensational troupe of actors who are sure to make you double over in your seat!

Valerie Lapena and Gustavo Lamanna

Great movie if you just want to laugh and enjoy the experience! Slapstick comedy at its finest. Jeffrey Tambor is hilarious as a down-on-his-luck director trying to navigate the insanity of show business and the fickle nature of success. And who new Jessie Plemons had such pipes? I have to admit, after watching Friday Night Lights, I had no idea that Plemons had the chops to do comedy. His timing was perfect. I also really liked Melinda McGraw as the boozing, fickle actress willing to sell her sole for a part. Flawed yet endearing. The story has lots of twists so its easy to lose yourself and enjoy the ride.

The pseudo-sophisticates behind "Meeting Spencer" may think they have written and produced a clever insider's look at the "real" world of show business. Instead, it is an appalling hash of a movie that one watches in disbelief, assuming that it must somehow have a point. It does not. This film would get a B- as a film school project. As a commercially-released film, it is laughable. Which is NOT to suggest that it is, for one moment, actually funny. The stilted dialogue is at least partly saved by the incredibly poor sound quality, which prevents most of the actors from being heard. This is, I think, meant to be a satire on the pretensions of the world of "the theatah." Instead it is a savage indictment of the world of indie film making, and even though the budget was clearly minimal, one can't imagine who might have actually put up whatever was spent to make this embarrassment.