I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

Starring: Jeff Garlin, Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt, Amy Sedaris, Dan Castellaneta, Wallace Langham, Roger Bart and Paul Mazursky

Written by: Jeff Garlin

Directed by: Jeff Garlin

Distributor: IFC Films


An inside joke can be funny to anyone if it’s delivered in the right way, but to a person who can catch the references, it’s convulsively hilarious. I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, the directorial debut of Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Jeff Garlin, works as a simple comedy about a guy down on his luck, but anyone familiar with the idiosyncrasies of life as a struggling actor just might be laughing a little bit louder.

The film stars Garlin as James, a struggling Chicago actor who lives with his mother. James is a regular at Second City looking to find more substantial work, and just as his life seems to be unraveling – he loses his girlfriend, his job and what little dignity he’s got – he hits it off with attractive Beth (Sarah Silverman) and learns that a Chicago agent is casting a film role that would be perfect for him.

The film’s strength isn’t its plot, which is dry and predictable. The outcome of the affair with Beth is only going to surprise people who aren’t already familiar with Silverman’s work. It’s nice to see her on the big screen, but she doesn’t do much that we haven’t already seen on her Comedy Central sitcom.

In fact, the blinking neon obviousness of the romance detracts from the real strength of the film – the ensemble of characters crawling through Garlin’s Chicago and rendered with inspired comic zeal. A Second City alum himself, Garlin populates his movie with current and former members of the Chicago troupe, including big-name players like Amy Sedaris and Bonnie Hunt. Richard Kind plays a talent agent named Herb Hope with admirable chutzpah. Larry Neumann Jr. is memorable as an eccentric homeless guy with a picky diet who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the nude scenes of every major Hollywood actress. Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson) gives an impressively low-key appearance as the pragmatic owner of a convenience center. Another notable performance (and probably the single funniest moment in the film) features a professional Chicago actor deftly exaggerating the personality of another professional Chicago actor. Garlin pulls the film together around these strange characters with his own offbeat comic imponderables. He’s got a good parking spot near Wrigley Field, so why move his car? Where can one get a decent serving of rice pudding? And who will be nice enough to eat cheese with him?

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