Meeting Spencer opens in Los Angeles Friday (Apr. 22) In case you missed my review of this hilarious indie screwball comedy, click here and watch the trailer.
This film is so deliciously witty, so scathingly devious, so well-cast, acted and directed, it will make you remember why you love going to the movies. Can’t say that about too many films these days.
If you live in New York, you’re in luck. No, the weather still sucks. But you can still have a great weekend by going to the Quad Cinema see Meeting Spencer, a new comedy starring Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development, The Hangover), Melinda McGraw (Mad Men, The Dark Knight) and Jesse Plemons (Friday Night Lights, Shrink)
I saw this movie in an early screening last year and absolutely fell in love with it. Just wish I was in NY to see it again this weekend.
I’ve covered entertainment for a decade and I seldom see an independently produced film of this caliber. What a surprisingly engaging screwball comedy with deft dialogue, delicious wit, charm, a conflux of amusing mistaken identities, laced with lust, ambition and deception. And it all takes place in Frankie and Johnny’s, the renowned Broadway eaterie.
Here’s the synopsis: After a series of Hollywood film flops, director Harris Chappell (Tambor) returns to New York — his tail not quite between his legs — ready to relaunch his Broadway career. But his anticipated comeback is complicated by a night of comic misadventure, involving a manipulative journalist, a struggling actor Spencer (Plemons) and an old flame Didi (McGraw).
The reviews have been positive, from the NY Times and the Hollywood Reporter. And I can’t help but feel that Will Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde — who both know a thing or two about comedies of mistaken identity — would have appreciated this movie.
The director is Malcolm Mowbray, who directed the endearing comedy A Private Function, starring Michael Palin, Maggie Smith and Denholm Elliot. The film was produced by George Braunstein (Fade to Black, Don’t Tell Her It’s Me, Uncle Samand Expecting Mary.
Keep ‘em coming, George!
Photo credits: