'DEAN': Three Stars (Out of Five)
An indie comedy-drama written and directed by actor Demetri Martin, who also stars in the film. Martin plays a Brooklyn cartoon artist (he also did all of the illustrations for the movie) named Dean, who recently lost his mother and broke up with his fiancé. The film costars Kevin Kline,Gillian Jacobs, Rory Scovel, Mary Steenburgen and Reid Scott. It's gotten mostly positive reviews from critics, and it won Best Narrative Feature at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, but it also underperformed at the indie Box Office. I found it to be slightly amusing, but not nearly as emotional as it seems to think it is.
Dean (Martin) is a published cartoon artist who lives in Brooklyn and recently lost his mother. He's having difficulty dealing with her passing, as is his father, Robert (Kline), who's also having trouble adjusting to living alone. Dean was engaged to be married, to Michelle (Christine Woods), but after his mom died, things didn't work out. He performs very poorly in his best friend Brett's (Scott) wedding, as a 'second best man', and then travels to Los Angeles to meet with some ad executives about using his art. He meets a woman, named Nicky (Jacobs), at a Los Angeles party there, and starts to fall for her. The whole time he still tries to cope with his mother's passing, deal with his recent breakup, and try to convince his dad not to sell their family home.
The movie has all of the ingredients of a well made (and emotional) comedy drama, but it feels like it's just going through all of the motions of one (to me). I think I'm a pretty big sucker for emotional dramas, but this one didn't really make me feel that much. It's slightly funny, and it's filled with sad characters, but it doesn't feel like a complete movie to me. I think Martin probably has some decent talent, as an actor and filmmaker, but he kind of misses the mark here (in my opinion).
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