Cinemazlowski Highs and lows of showbiz explored in worthwhile indie flick

There's a moment of truth that every struggling entertainer has to face. That's the moment when they have to question themselves about whether they will ever succeed, or if their dreams are really a delusion.

 

That's the dilemma faced by the member of a New York-based improve troupe in the new movie "Don't Think Twice," which uses a documentary-like feel to draw viewers into the humorously rattled nerves and tortured psyches of artists who have hit their personal crossroads. As a graduate of Chicago's Second City improv conservatory who's been immersed in the LA and Chicago comedy scenes for 20 years, I can vouch that writer-director-costar Mike Birbiglia has absolutely nailed this world, both in moments of joy and sadness.

 

 The movie centers around a troupe called The Commune, who are all fairly smart and witty and getting scared about their lives as they face their mid-thirties. Miles (Birbiglia) is the troupe's leader, but he's 36 and has been guiding them through weekly shows at a 99-seat theatre for 11 years, while sharing an apartment with half the troupe and sleeping in such a tiny loft space that a visiting college girlfriend refuses to sleep with him there.

 

The other members are also well-drawn and unique, defined further by spot-on performances by a cast of veteran indie comedy actors including Kate Micucci, Tami Sagher and Chris Gethard. These actors have graced the real improv stages of Chicago and LA so long, and have faced the same dilemmas en route to their eventual success, and that impassioned perspective does wonders for opening up the backstage world of this movie to viewers who may be wholly unfamiliar with the improv scene.

 

But the standout duo in the cast are Keegan-Michael Key (of Comedy Central's "Key and Peele") and Gillian Jacobs (NBC's "Community") as Jack and Samantha. Jack has a long-standing, annoying habit of trying to steal the show whenever talent scouts show up at a Commune show. Despite Miles begging him not to showboat, he bursts into a terrific Obama impression when talent scouts from a "Saturday Night Live" style show come to watch, and both he and Samantha are invited to audition for the big time.

 

What happens when Jack gets the break and Samantha does it due to surprising circumstances winds up having huge ramifications on the entire troupe, both onstage and off. Jealousy, rivalries and the harsh tug of reality that some members just don't have star potential all interfere with their decade-plus relationships.

 

At first, "Don't" comes off as perhaps too insular a look at a very specific slice of showbiz life. But as the characters develop into people viewers can truly laugh with, empathize with and root for, Birbiglia finds ways to make their dilemmas universal as they each slowly have to face their own shifting visions of their futures. In the way that Birbiglia provides a perfect fit for each of these characters' lives, both inside big-time showbiz or on their own smaller levels of personal satisfaction, is also a wonder of quality writing.

 

"Don't Think Twice" is rated R, though it's kind of hard to see why – not that it would interest teens anyway, being a story about adult crises. It has one F-word that I recall, as well as a few uses of God's or Jesus' names in vain; if anything slipped past me, that is a reflection of how low-key any foul language is here.

 

One surprising pro-life subplot involves the girlfriend of a main character, who discovers she's pregnant from a previous fling. She says that being in her 30s, she can't consider not having the child, and her new boyfriend in the improv troupe steps up and offers to change his entire life and become responsible by offering to take a real chance on their relationship and serve as the child's father as well, with strong implications that they're heading for marriage.

 

There is a scene in which an unmarried couple is having sex but are hidden from their bare shoulders down by sheets, and another scene implies that Miles has just had sex with a young 20-something improve student of his. There are also a few moments in which marijuana is smoked by some members of the group, but is almost too casual to be noticed.

 

This is the second feature film that Birbiglia has written and directed, following his 2012 debut "Sleepwalk With Me." A veteran standup comic who took the "Sleepwalk" concept – the story of how he overcame a bizarre battle with sleepwalking to reach success - to a lengthy off-Broadway run in addition to national tours and a bestselling book, Birbiglia proved that he had real chops coming out of the gate.

 

By expanding  his vision to an ensemble-based, character-driven film, he proves here that "Sleepwalk" was no fluke and he could very well develop into a filmmaker capable of keeping Woody Allen's style of comedy alive and well at the cinema. This is playing in a few major cities now, but is well worth seeking out as it expands into more cities and in its DVD and VOD runs.