Search - I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With on DVD

Matthew C. (CoopXL) from PLEASANT PR, WI
Reviewed on 10/27/2009...

You can tell this was a very personal effort on Jeff Garlin's part. Funny and sad (in parts) and always sincere.

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

James B. (wandersoul73) from LINDALE, TX
Reviewed on 6/9/2009...

This is a wonderfully fun and funny movie.

3 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

Modest Comedy About a Lonely Sad Sack Boasts a Smart Cast to

Ed Uyeshima | San Francisco, CA USA | 02/07/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Any movie that offers Bonnie Hunt, Sarah Silverman and Amy Sedaris in the supporting cast has to be well worth watching, and comic actor Jeff Garlin takes advantage of the terrific talent he recruited for his 2007 directorial debut, a sad-sack comedy about an overweight man who feels out of step with the world around him. Familiar as Larry David's manager Jeff on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Garlin plays James, a still-struggling, 39-year old Chicago actor who lives with his widowed mother. His self-esteem is so low that he can't meet women, but he's a likable guy and it's the comical way he views his single status that makes his dilemma involving. If the storyline sounds a bit familiar, that's because the film is partially a tribute to the 1955 Ernest Borgnine classic, Marty, about a lonely Bronx butcher living with his meddlesome mother. In fact, Garlin uses Marty as the play which James is desperate to do since he is so empathetic to the character's situation.

Naturally there is a love story of sorts in this new millennium version, and Silverman plays Beth, an off-kilter, sexually voracious ice cream parlor server who takes him on an underwear shopping spree. Their best scene together is in his favorite convenience store where they improvise different characters in different aisles. Hunt plays a lonely elementary school teacher who shares a passion with James for jazz saxophonist Ben Webster. They meet accidentally in a record store and then again at a career day at her school where he hilariously exposes his sexual neuroses in front of a classroom of first-graders, including his best friend Luca's pert daughter Penelope (played by Dakota Fanning's look-alike baby sister Elle). In a wedged-in cameo and looking quite a bit like Jerri Blank, Sedaris plays the school's counselor who speaks to James after his inappropriate monologue. David Pasquesi plays Luca, a retirement home manager, and his scenes with Garlin have an easy rapport that makes their friendship easy to believe. Almost stealing the movie is character actress Mina Kolb, who plays James' pixilated mother with pluck and heart.

There are also unexpected cameos from teen idol Aaron Carter and Gina Gershon (don't ask...but the set-up is funny), as well as sharply played bits by director Paul Mazursky as the snaky director of a candid-camera-type show, "Smear Job"; Tim Kazurinsky as the unsuspecting victim of that show; Roger Bart as the play's ignorant casting director; and Dan Castellaneta as the tough-love convenience store owner. With his rueful bouts of insecurity and self-loathing, Garlin's comic sensibilities resemble those of Albert Brooks, and the casual dialogue at its best reminds me of Modern Romance and Defending Your Life. The one persistent problem I had with the film is pacing as some scenes dragged out longer than necessary. The problem is more evident in the first half when Garlin is trying to establish the right tempo, and the lack of real conflict adds to the sluggishness. Regardless, what he does well is capture that gnawing sense of desperation one feels upon the revelation that life is not what it is supposed to be, that a significant other may be out of reach, and that a steady diet of junk food eaten on a car hood is the only sure thing when it comes to gratification."

Life Sucking

T. Gates | USA | 07/08/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This movie starts off slow and you think it might get better but it never does it felt like the movie just suck the life out of me. Comedy it is NOT you end up feeling sorry and depressed after the movie. If you want to feel sorry and depressed this is your movie."

WITTY DIALOGUE AND A GREAT CAST MAKE THIS FAMILIAR STORY WOR

! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b | TRI STATE AREA | 02/03/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am always amazed at how well good dialogue can carry an otherwise familiar theme in a film. 'I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With' is just such a movie. The film is about an overweight man who wants to find his soul mate. He comes across several quirky characters and it is his encounters and the witty dialogue that keep this film rolling along. It's an amusing and sweet tale, but it does seem to end rather abruptly and may not fully satisfy every viewer. I kind of liked it for being different."