Cine-MO-tography: Sleepwalk With Me

Cine-MO-tography 
Sleepwalk With Me

Mike Birbiglia is a funny guy, there’s no denying that. If you enjoy laughing at the sadness and irony within the mundane repetitive everyday delivered dryly while forgiving you the transgression of apathy…Sleepwalk With Me is your movie.

The content of the film is more complicated than the trailer gives it credit. Its main dichotomy is between childhood and adulthood. In childhood the answers are simple: Yes, No. In adulthood it doesn’t matter what the answer is but it matters why is that the answer. 

Visual contrast can be found in the scenes with Matt, our sleepwalker, alone and any scenes where he is joined by family and/or his girlfriend, Abby. The scenes that allow for this interaction of the familiar are bright and saturated in a way that oozes a cozy feeling. You could find yourself lost in the wispy red hairs of Abby or dumbstruck by the amber light of family dinner filled with contention but still honey dipped. When Matt is alone and on the road as a comedian colors pale and shadows deepen. The Dream sequences are vivid, hilarious, and engaging in a fashion that shows to some extent why and how one can get so wrapped up in them, and consider them real beyond their face value absurdity. 

Dreaming the amazing and the impossible while incorporating a touch of reality you are familiar with is natural to childhood like eating cotton candy at the fair. In the film, as the dream time turns into awake grown up reality, the rug is yanked so hard it will remind you of the first bill with your name on it, the first flaw you saw in your father and all the other disappointments that come with maturing. 

Caution: This is not a film you should bring your long standing girlfriend to unless things are grand, or you have put on armor and placed a sword on your hip. It could be an uncomfortable ride home for everyone. Relationship woes will be sliced open like a scorching knife through warm butter.

 

Matt’s parents are both hilariously bewildered by their troubled son. Carol Kane and James Rebhorn’s performances are charming and so believable it will feel as if you have always known Matt’s parents. 

Facing adulthood with maturity and honesty always goes easier in the company of friends, mixed with laughter and a bit of perspective. This combination is laced throughout the film and makes the laughter hurt so good. 

Sleepwalk With Me is a film directed, written and starring Mike Birbiglia. The cast also includes Lauren Ambrose, Carol Kane, and James Rebhorn. It was produced in part by This American Life’s Ira Glass. It is in theaters and On Demand and on Netflix. 

Content: 4 beers of a 6 pack           Visual Appeal: 4 beers of a 6 pack

Audience Appeal: 3 out of 6 pack

Overall: 2 out of 3 fist bumps

-Mo