Saturday, 26 March 2016

"Welcome to Me" (Guardian 25/03/16)


Welcome to Me **
Dir: Shira Piven. With: Kristen Wiig, Wes Bentley, Linda Cardellini, Joan Cusack. 87 mins. Cert: 15

An oddball dramedy, of the kind comedians habitually venture whenever they bridle at being deployed as mere gag-monkeys. Here it’s Kristen Wiig, playing a recluse with borderline personality disorder who self-finances a TV talkshow after winning the Nevada lottery – a contrivance that generates, at best, fitful titters. There’s moderate fun with the show itself, which – in its insistent oversharing – suggests some Kardashian-age Wayne’s World offshoot, but dead air ensues once Wiig’s Julia starts interrogating past traumas: the heroine’s evident distress mutes any applause. Wiig commits to the experiment, but several other performers are squandered, and quirks outnumber truths; as a mental illness narrative in particular, it feels perilously phoney.

Welcome to Me is now playing in selected cinemas. 

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