Dealin' with Idiots

This was one of those Netflix discoveries made late at night. I gave it a chance, mainly because of the stellar cast (Jeff Garlin? Fred Willard? LOVE!!!) I was beyond pleasantly surprised. I'm not a fan of writing spoilers (but I love to read them....weird, huh?!), so I'll be vague and mysterious and just say that it was such an odd, hilarious movie, but with a sprinkle of positivity that just endears you to it all the more. (Don't let this confuse you, I'm a fan of bawdy, outrageous comedy and this is chock-full of it!) You don't have to love sports or have kids to laugh your @$$ off. I love this movie, and I can honestly say I'd rewatch this again and again (which I rarely say about a movie.)

P.S. Steve Agee's character was amazing. Just...yeah. I really didn't know the man existed prior to this film, and I can't wait to see some of his other work. Also, Jami Gertz' character is the (hilariously) living embodiment of why I'm glad my kids don't care about sports.

Comedian Max Morris (Jeff Garlin) brings his son Max to play in little league baseball. Max isn't good. Ava (Nia Vardalos) is his wife. He has imaginary conversations with his father (Timothy Olyphant). He decides to research the wacky parents who come to the games for a possible movie. Coach Jimbo (Bob Odenkirk) owns a print shop. Coach Ted (J.B. Smoove) lives next to weird neighbors Jessica (Natasha Leggero), Jackie the Chocolatier, Freddy, and Big Time Sara. Angela (Hope Dworaczyk Smith) is a hot nanny for one of the kids. Harold (Richard Kind) is married to Rosie (Jami Gertz) who is obsessed with the game snacks. Hezekiah (Steve Agee) is obsessed with the game and possibly making his own movie. Caitlin (Kerri Kenney) and Sophie (Gina Gershon) are the lesbian couple. Marty (Fred Willard) is the divorced money man who is secretly without any money.

Jeff Garlin has gathered a big cast of fun comedic talents to use in this rambling comedy. It's a lot of wacky characters in the world of little league baseball. There isn't anything tremendous but this cast is bound to get a couple of chuckles. There isn't much of a story. These aren't the Bad News Bears. The kids are mostly decorations and aren't actual characters.

I watched this flick because I recently saw Handsome, which wasnt bad. But Idiots was just......bad. The best thing about it was the credits.

Not the most perfect movie and doesn't aspire to be. However it is unique in the sense that the comedy doesn't come from situations but from the interactions between the characters. The movie is about a comedy writer interviewing little league suburbanite parents who each seem to be suffering from a distinct and hilarious personality disorder. Each of the suburbanites are played by top notch comedian whom I've seen in other roles and have enjoyed. Ironically Garlin plays the straight man to the wacky cast of characters he's forced to deal with.

If I had one criticism, it would be that the film had a lack of an ending. However, despite that fact, it didn't take away from the ride, and during that ride you knew you were experiencing something unique anyway. Uniqueness is what I feel like is missing from most movies and in that, this film delivers. A hidden gem and worth a watch, I look forward to more from Jeff Garlin.

This morning when I got up I looked at all the torrents that finished while I was asleep. "The Heat" and this movie were 100%, and I watched the better rated of the two first. Despite the fact that that large woman who hasn't been in enough movies for me to remember her name yet is REALLY funny, I felt like I was watching Nickelodeon at that time of the day. Probably because Lethal Weapon was one of the first movies I saw and they've made the same movie every week since then. There's a straight cop and an unconventional one, bad guys fall down dead, drugs are bad. And yet the movie has generally positive reviews and a 7.1 on this site as of last night... Every time I fall for it, it gets harder not to be genuinely angry about the waste of my 90 minutes.

"Dealin' with Idiots", on the other hand, was fracking great. It's got Jeff Garlin, Bob Odenkirk, Fred Willard, JB Smoove, one of the other good characters from 'Curb', and you get to see Gina Gershon for a few minutes too. Nothing about the movie is immature or silly to me. This is not the dad from American Pie doing a spin off with some up and coming teabag from the internet pissing in your face for an hour. This is not 2 but 4 or 5 extremely talented comedians giving great performances with a funny script from a pretty fresh perspective. Jeff Garlin is great, and if someone doesn't watch it because it had a 4.9 on IMDb like it did last night when I downloaded it, this site needs to go away because it's hurting the film industry way more than me and my lack of funds ever will. It's great, if have some brain cells left after watching network TV lately you should do what I can't and pay to see it online. I digress... the ending was a bit abrupt, I thought seeing them at a soccer game would've been a nice touch.