In A World - Review

In A World – Review

Starring Lake Bell, “In A World” is a witty comedy where we find 30 year old Carol Solomon (Bell) who is a struggling vocal coach in the suburbs of Los Angeles still living with her single father named Sam Sotto. Sam. is the current reigning king of movie trailer voice-over artists, who is somewhat arrogant, definitely prideful and full of hubris at his self perceived prominence in this little known slice of life aspect of the film industry.

Sam feels his daughter is not making enough progress in her life, so he encourages her to have the courage to pursue her secret aspiration of being a voice-over star like her father. But Sam motives are not genuine as his real motive is simply designed to getting his daughter out of his house before his new girl friend moves in.

Somewhat naively armed with renewed confidence Carol moves out of her fathers home and moves into her fiery sister Dani home who becomes her trusted confidante as Carol earnestly begins to engage the necessary skills of trying to charm the right industry people with the hopes of nabbing a good job. But with all the renewed confidence in the world Carol soon discovers she is moving down an entangled journey of an industry full of professional dysfunction, blatant sexism, unmitigated egos, and boisterous pride.

In A World is one of those rare small independent type films whose strength is immediately obvious from its very cleaver, smart, snappy and creative screenplay which was by the way written and directed by the actress herself Lake Bell. The film’s other strength is the appropriate casting of supporting actors who give this movie its human warmth and comedic charm.

Lake Bell has real directing and writing talent on display here that seem uniquely and especially suited in taking small subject matters and giving them some real complex weight. She also has the rare gift of writing a story that stays focused on the film’s plot that also manages to provide real depth and development to subplots that keep a real connection to its main theme.

At its core this film is a screwball comedy and a smart creative effort. We also discover that Lake Bell can not only have real appeal in front of the camera as an actress, she has the same appeal behind it, with a surprising talent of putting her quirky thoughts to paper.

3 – 3/4 Stars