Orlando Lens
Lake Bell, writer/director/star of In A World..., has long deserved to be a bigger star than she is. Funny, soulful, and uniquely beautiful, she's survived on small parts in big movies and larger roles with the Southern California comedy community's projects, such as Children's Hospital. In A World..., her new comic drama set in the world of voice over acting, proves she's got a lot of talent as a writer as well, and though the film is a bit slight in its ambitious, it does what it plans to do very well and in doing so showcases the talents of Bell and several other familiar faces with unfamiliar names who, like Bell, deserve greater glory than they've gained.
In A World...'s title is a reference to the oft-repeated film trailer cliche, and in the film's landscape of voice over kings it's a sacred line that only the very best can utter. The plot of the film revolves around Carol Solomon's (Bell) family. Her father, patriarch Sam Sotto, is a voice-over artist of much renown who has chosen for his protege not his daughter, who works as a vocal coach, but Gustav Warner (Ken Marino), because he believes that the voice over world is not looking for a female sound. Sam and Carol's fractured relationship is actually slightly better than Sam's relationship with his other daughter, Dani (Michaela Watkins) who is going through a bit of a crisis with her partner Moe. The final complication is sound tech Louis, with whom Carol shares a mutual unspoken crush.
Ensemble dramedies--and this one is much lighter than many--succeed or fail on the strength of their casts. The small budget of In A World... ensures that the characters will draw you in, not the visuals, which are true-to-life but not memorable. Luckily, the cast is almost entirely ringers, with comic treasures like Tig Notaro and Nick Offerman in small roles and excellent turns from Lake, Marino, and Fred Melamed as Sam. The dysfunction of the Sotto/Solomon clan is wacky enough to be funny but real enough to matter, and the very natural fracture/mending plot--that also dovetails with themes of the Solomon's sisters efforts to become the women they want to be--is a familiar one but feels fresh with such assured hands at controls.
The film as a whole is charming but has some strong messages, and the voice-over world is almost assuredly a double for the comedy world that Bell is so familiar with; one that has historically been dominated by male voices. The comedy in In A World... is not quite the focus, but when deployed it works, mostly are charming conversations between characters. Some surprise celebrity cameos also manage to create some laughs, but the main strength of the film is its veracity; it has a point of view that seems authentic and that point of view is strongly and efficiently expressed over a breezy 93 minutes.
By Nicholas Ware
In A World...'s title is a reference to the oft-repeated film trailer cliche, and in the film's landscape of voice over kings it's a sacred line that only the very best can utter. The plot of the film revolves around Carol Solomon's (Bell) family. Her father, patriarch Sam Sotto, is a voice-over artist of much renown who has chosen for his protege not his daughter, who works as a vocal coach, but Gustav Warner (Ken Marino), because he believes that the voice over world is not looking for a female sound. Sam and Carol's fractured relationship is actually slightly better than Sam's relationship with his other daughter, Dani (Michaela Watkins) who is going through a bit of a crisis with her partner Moe. The final complication is sound tech Louis, with whom Carol shares a mutual unspoken crush.
The film as a whole is charming but has some strong messages, and the voice-over world is almost assuredly a double for the comedy world that Bell is so familiar with; one that has historically been dominated by male voices. The comedy in In A World... is not quite the focus, but when deployed it works, mostly are charming conversations between characters. Some surprise celebrity cameos also manage to create some laughs, but the main strength of the film is its veracity; it has a point of view that seems authentic and that point of view is strongly and efficiently expressed over a breezy 93 minutes.
In A World... is not necessarily the kind of film that wins lots of awards or even sticks with an audience terribly long, but it's the counterpoint to a movie like Girl Least Likely (released several months ago). Unlike that film, In A World... feels real, has a internally consistent point of view, and favors emotion over quirk. That's the kind of cinematic world I like to visit.
In A World... opens today at the Enzian. Rated R for language including some sexual references. Run time 1 hour 33 minutes.