I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.

"[I]f you're into the formless baring of the innermost self, you could do a lot worse than Curb Your Enthusiasm star Jeff Garlin's sweetly tender peregrination, based on his one-man show on being a fat, gig-less, and lonely actor in search of someone to love," writes Ella Taylor in the Voice. "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With may be one of the wisest studies of urban loneliness since Paddy Chayefsky's Marty (which figures in the movie as a remake starring boy-band alum Aaron Carter), as well as the least condescending to little old Jewish mothers, who drive the story more than you'd think."

"Laid back and affectionate, Cheese is the movie version of a dear friend you could spend all day with," writes Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Times.

"[D]espite a few chuckle-worthy moments - such as James's rambling, inapt speech in front of an elementary school class, and cameos from Amy Sedaris and Richard Kind - as well as a finale that succinctly encapsulates the story's sentiments about aging, parent-child relationships, and performing, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With is nothing more than the type of casual diversion an agreeable TV star might make with his friends during his primary show's summertime hiatus," writes Nick Schager at Slant.

"Cheese carries the remarkably unpretentious air of a small movie, simply shot with an utterly straightforward story - and yet it's hardly a stab at character reinvention in the vein of Adam Sandler's performance in Punch-Drunk Love," writes Eric Kohn in the New York Press. "Garlin's screen presence feels less like acting than merely existing."

"Like all the improv greats, Garlin is able to milk an impressive batch of comedy out of thin material, and he gets pretty far on not much," writes Chris Barsanti at Filmcritic.com. "Good improv plays on the familiar, while great improv stuns and bewilders audiences with the unexpected; I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With is only good, which should be less disappointing than it is."

"Shot in 19 days over two years in Chicago and LA, the film also stars Bonnie Hunt, Amy Sedaris and David Pasquesi. Surprisingly, with all of these improv talents Garlin says there was very little improvisation, which makes this intimate portrait of one man's vices even more enjoyable to watch." Jason Guerrasio talks with him for Filmmaker.

"If Jeff Garlin looks a bit happier than usual these days, it's because the stars in his heaven have come into alignment and are shining on him at a most opportune moment in his personal and professional life." Gary Dretzka talks with him for Movie City News.

Online viewing tip. Garlin at Tribeca.

Update, 9/13: Talks with Garlin: Elvis Mitchell (KCRW) and Susan King (Los Angeles Times).

Posted by dwhudson at September 6, 2007 12:57 PM