In A World... (Movie Review)

The best thing, worst thing, and main thing about Lake Bell's debut "In A World..." in about the time it takes to watch the trailer.

 

REVIEW TEXT:

 Voice Over… Right.. Like anyone should make a living just talking into a microphone...
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:in Voice over: “In A World” is a fictional look into the life of an aspiring voice over artist and what happens when she goes up against her well respected father for the voice over gig of a lifetime. Alright, enough of that, Now that my dreams of making 7 figures a year just saying words are safely behind me, let’s talk about this movie. It’s great! It come from the brain of Lake Bell, who wrote, directed, and stars in it. If you haven’t heard of her that’s not a surprise as it is the first movie she’s written and directed, but what an incredible debut!
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The one thing I noticed right off the bat about this movie is that Bell has a great sense of humor. The movie isn’t a laugh riot comedy, but Bell’s screwball sensibilities make for some really fun moments on screen. Not only that, but it’s pretty incredible how much emotional depth she is able to paint in this world while at the same time keeping it so light and humorful. But the best thing about “In a world” for me? The real life Voice Over stuff. It’s a world I haven’t seen explored on the big screen and I loved that the conversations and situations were so genuine to that sub culture. Many of the biggest names in voice over actually played themselves and I found that to be a nice touch. As someone who has close friends in the industry and dabbles myself it was nice to see the occupation get some time in the sun, especially in such an enjoyable and well made film. One other thing I liked is that the film didn’t rely on just the plot to intrigue us, but filled it with interesting characters and compelling relationships to help drive the story along.
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Although, as for that, I have to admit, the central love relationship in the movie did leave me a little bit dry. I’m not sure I could put my finger exactly on it. But it just never quite rang true. I think it comes down to that the interactions between the two leads just seemed to be some sort of forced awkwardness. While genuine awkwardness can be cute and adorable (at least I hope so, for my own sake) if I sense that it’s a put on, it immediately becomes distasteful to me, and I felt like that was the case here. That filter distracted me from buying in to much of the emotion and ended up being the lone blemish on an otherwise engaging movie.
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Overall, “In a World” is a brilliant first time endeavor by the funny and talented Lake Bell. Though I found the central relationship hard to buy, I loved pretty much everything else, especially the deeper look into the wonderful world of voice over. I give it a B+.
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So that’s the review, but wait there’s more. Stay tuned for the “Challenge Question” in a bit but first, I’m going to throw up some stuff to click over in this area. If you’d like to subscribe, which I would much appreciate, you can do so by clicking the big gray subscribe button. Want to see more reviews? Here are three of the most recent “Best Man Holiday”, “Dallas Buyers Club” or the killer whale documentary “Black Fish”. You can also Click the logo up here to go to yourmoviefriend.com where you can search by title for reviews. And finally this review’s “Challenge” question, “name the best movie written, starring, and directed by the same person” Mine was done by the guy who played Forrest Gump. Just leave your answer in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe!