BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
I love a few things and it just so happens that Jeff Garlin is involved with both. One of those things is “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, which Jeff is a producer and star of. The other is the Chicago Cubs, which Mr. Garlin shares in the pain of being a fan of. He’s just a likeable guy. He’s just a big bowl of endearment. He put the “I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With” a few years back. He wrote, directed, and starred in it. I remember really enjoying it and wondering if ‘d he make more movies. It took a couple of years, but out of nowhere I was sideswiped by this latest project. I didn’t know it existed until just recently after seeing Garlin on a TV show. This is another writing/directing/starring situation. This movie Jeff is dealing with idiots. Not just any idiots, but the parents of little leaguers. He plays a successful comedian who is considering to make a movie based on the colorful collection of personalities. This results in him going to games, bonding with his kid, going to the parent’s houses and work, and even taking a few moments to reflect and have mental conversations with his father. put together a great cast. Fred Willard plays a weird not-rich old guy, Bob Odenkirk is the coach of the team who lives a sad life, J.B. Smoove lives in a pimp-tastic compound, Gina Gershon and Kerri Kenney-Silver are hot and intimidating lesbians, Jami Gertz is an overbearing organizer, Richard Kind is Richard Kind, and Steve Agee is a confrontational pussy. Those are just value descriptions for characters that honestly have a lot of life to them and meat to their story. I think that’s the benefit of casting such awesome people. Jeff had awesome chemistry with them all and it made the back and forth banter throughout the whole movie enjoyable and hilarious. I love baseball, but not as much as I should. I think I appreciate it mainly because I know the value my father finds in it. In fact, I’m pretty happy to say I actually got to watch this movie with my dad. I’m sure Jeff would appreciate that. Jeff had a whole father/baseball thing in this movie too. He would jump cut to an internal conversation between him and his own father, played by the always cool Timothy Olyphant. These conversations carried the movie for me. It put Jeff’s on-going journey and his perspective in a clearer light as he bounces from oddball character to oddball character. The whole time he’s just kind of an explorer. He’s trying to figure out a potential project, but it looks like he’s looking for something else in the process. Does it find it or does he lose it? That’s the fun in watching the movie. You’ll get to find out! You’ll want to find out because it’s a fun movie. It won’ blow your mind, but it’ll weasel its way into your heart. B
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