By snoadmin
Mike Birbiglia’s film “Sleepwalk With Me” is about a failed stand-up comedian discovering that his long term relationship is deteriorating while also dealing with a dangerous sleep disorder, and although it may not sound like it, the film is hilarious.
It’s hard to describe the film without it sounding depressing, but it’s one of the most honest, funny and surprisingly uplifting indie films of the year.
The film is based on Birbiglia’s off-Broadway stage show that blended his style of stand-up comedy with theater and real-life anecdotes. Co-written and produced by Ira Glass, host of the hugely popular radio show “This American Life,” Glass became involved with the project after Birbiglia appeared on the program to share some of his sleepwalking horror stories.
Birbiglia actually suffers from a rare sleep disorder called REM behavior disorder, which causes him to get out of bed and actually act out his dreams. Before he was diagnosed, this led to some strange and potentially dangerous situations including a smashed TiVo, a clothed shower and a second story motel window.
The film version of these events blurs reality with fiction slightly but still feels like a memoir. Birbiglia plays a struggling stand-up comedian named Matt Pandamiglio – an obvious reference to his notoriously hard-to-pronounce last name – who works as a bartender at a comedy club and still performs his material from when he was in college.
Pandamiglio’s long-term girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose) is supportive of his comedy career and sees his untapped potential, but it’s clear that she wants something more from the relationship that he is unwilling to give. Because of this, they are each holding each other back from what they truly want, all because they’re afraid of breaking up.
This stress brings itself to a head when Pandamiglio starts having twisted and hilarious dreams that lead to bizarre sleepwalking experiences. At one point he is handed a baby wrapped in a bed of roses as a prize for winning second place in the “dustbusting olympics.” Unfortunately, he falls off his bookcase podium and ends up smashing a TiVo and bruising his head in his sleep.
The dream sequences in the film are extremely effective and believable. The viewer gets the same sense of confusion as the dreamer himself, as situations change rapidly and characters from Pandamiglio’s life slip in and out of the scene. This is both laugh-out-loud hilarious and troubling. As Pandamiglio becomes more and more torn between a life of comedy and a life with Abby, his dreams and subsequent sleepwalking episodes become more and more intense.
The world of stand-up comedy is shown as an exciting, terrifying and unforgiving business. Pandamiglio’s jokes fail to get a response because he lacks the confidence and pain of the other performers. Other comics are shown as dark and upset caricatures of themselves.
Comedian Marc Maron makes a cameo as a much cockier version of himself, which is possibly a reference to former real-life tension between him and Birbiglia. When Pandamiglio mentions that he doesn’t want to get married until he’s certain that “Nothing else good could ever happen in his life,” Maron laughs and says “That’s what you should say on stage.”
Pandamiglio finds his comedic voice by discussing his reservations about relationships, babies and marriage on stage, while also spending less and less time at home. He begins to truly understand why he chose comedy as his profession while also avoiding his obvious problems with Abby. Spending time alone, sleeping in motels, staying up all night and driving all over the country are not at all helpful to a relationship, and Pandamiglio seems to enjoy doing all of those things.
Throughout the film Birbiglia, or Pandamiglio, it’s unclear which one addresses the camera Woody Allen-style to narrate the story. These segments don’t come across as cheap exposition, but more as a direct connection to the audience, which makes it even easier to relate to some of the familiar aspects of the narrative. Birbiglia is comparable to Allen in multiple ways, a writer/director playing an exaggerated version of himself.
Everybody has felt uncertain about the choices they’re making in life, and many times this leads to people delaying the inevitable and making decisions because they feel like they have to. This film goes to show that avoiding difficult decisions simply leads to more unhappiness and finding the right path for your life is, more often than not, something you have to do alone.
Much like Birbiglia/Pandamiglio, most people have dreams that we’re afraid to act upon or fully devote ourselves to. For Pandamiglio, it took his actual dreams invading his real life for him to make a change. Hopefully for everybody else, it is much less painful.
“Sleepwalk With Me” is out in limited release, and will be playing at the NuArt theatre in Los Angeles starting Friday.
