Maryville Pawprint Maryville Pawprint, Maryville University's Student Newspaper
Mike Birbiglia brings his one man show to the big screen and transforms his comedic performance into an indie film filled with unexpected laughter and believable humor. “Sleepwalk with Me” was written and directed by Mike Birbiglia and Seth Barrish. Movie cast members include comedian Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, James Rebhorn, Carol Kane, and Cristin Milioti.
Image courtesy of Maryville Pawprint.
The story of stand-up comic Birbiglia unfolds as his relationship heads towards marriage, his career stalls as he struggles getting gigs, and his REM disorder worsens, making his sleepwalking unbearable. The story starts off with his riding in a shabby car explaining to the audience how he got to that point of his life, and then the story line goes into the focus of his relationship.
This film shows you a very funny take on relationships, and the comics he uses make it great to see with a big crowd. Birbiglia struggles to understand his girlfriend’s mindset about marriage; the more she mentions it to him, the farther he gets from her and avoids the question. To her it is a childish little act that she does about wanting to get married and have the perfect family; but he feels that he has to see if nothing better will come to his life before getting married. Then he has all his immediately family pushing him towards marriage making it uncomfortable for him to have any possible reason to end his relationship.
The break of his relationship was when they move in together hoping for a great future when all they get is a trip downhill of heartbreak. Birbiglia finds a way to get gigs from a former comedian he once met at the bar he worked in, and he starts driving off to poorly paid gigs. Here he discovers a whole new act to use as his jokes, and these were jokes about his bad relationship and sucky sleeping disorder.
From the extreme of jumping out of a window while reenacting his dream to falling off of objects, you will have some good laughs about his bad sleepwalking; so technically you do sleepwalk with him as the title states.
I strongly recommend this film, especially after a long day because seeing his messed up life you know your life cannot be worse, and things do get better. Some reviews state that it is a cheesy version of comedy, but I strongly disagree and will say that the cheesier his jokes are the funnier it makes it. I give this film thumbs up and hope you are lucky to watch it with a full theatre and hear the crowd’s reaction to Birbiglia’s funny story.
