A Great Cast And Thoughtful Story Make Don't Think Twice A Riot

"Dying is easy, comedy is hard". Everyone's heard that phrase before and boy howdy is it ever the truth. Comedic acting skills tend to get undervalued compared to their dramatic counterpart, perhaps a bit of give-and-take in the fact that escapism comedies tend to make a whole lot more money than the darker dramas where dramatic acting excels. Still, one can't help but feel that those who immerse themselves in the world comedy acting don't quite get the sort of respect they deserve due to the kind of work they put into their craft. Thankfully, we've got a movie like Don't Think Twice that helps put the spotlight on those comedians struggling to get their time in the limelight and some respect.


For the folks in the improv comedy group The Commune, life begins and ends with doing off-the-cuff comedy. The six individuals in this group consist of Jack (Keegan-Michael Key), Miles (Mike Birbiglia), Samantha (Gillian Jacobs), Allison (Kate Micucci), Bill (Chris Gethard) and Lindsay (Tami Sagher), and they're a tight-knit little gaggle of improv-loving human beings. Change is in the air for the group though, as the location where they've been performing for years is closing down and Jack has been accepted into the cast of a Saturday Night Live stand-in named Weekend Live. That puts some major friction in Jack and Samantha's romantic relationship as well as his standing with everyone else in the group while the other five members go through their own personal crises.

Don't Think Twice was gonna live or die based on the strength of its casting, no question about it. For the task of hiring the six lead actors, you have a tall order to fulfill; you need individuals well-versed in the world of comedy, people who can actually do improv well and the six of them need to have strong chemistry bouncing off each other to sell the idea that these folks have been close friends for ages now. Luckily, they certainly nailed getting all the people in place needed to make those aspects of this movie soar. You totally believe that these six have skills in their craft while also easily grasping the idea that they share a close bond together.

To boot, on an individual basis, the six lead actors in this ensemble feature also manage to be superb on their own merits. For instance, Keegan-Michael Key keeps a likable air around Jack even as the fame of his newfound job begins to go to his head while Chris Gethard is strong at handling his characters morose outlook stemming from an existential crisis spurred on by his character's father being involved in a fatal motorcycle accident. But the best of the bunch has gotta be Gillian Jacobs as the member of the troupe who may just be happy where she is in life...and that's OK. That's a unique plotline, one that advocates for being at peace with normalcy and Jacobs handles that integral part of the story so damn well with her ability to be adept with both comedic and more dramatic parts of her characters journey.

Being unfamiliar with his debut 2012 project Sleepwalk With Me, the work of Mike Birbiglia here, (he both stars in this production and also assumes the duties of writer/director) was a major surprise to me. This guy has a nice knack for handling a larger cast and keeping their realistic scenarios firmly in the world of realism. Even though they work in the world of improv comedy, Birbiglia doesn't use that specific occupation as an excuse to contrive over-the-top scenarios to force contrived drama in the plot, instead letting the story just go about on its way in an organic fashion that culminates in a nicely realistic manner that suggests it's OK for things to fall or drift apart.

In terms of his script, some of the individual plotlines certainly needed some more time to work to their fullest potential, particularly the personal problems faced by Lindsay and Allison, while Birbiglia's character has a romantic relationship that feels rushed. Those kind of miscues don't distract too heavily from the better elements in his screenplay that, combined with that excellent cast assembled here, form Don't Think Twice, a thoroughly entertaining movie that took me by surprise with its strongly developed characters and intimate nature.