Hear me roar
Comedy reveals Hollywood through tiny world of voice actors
In a world where the egos are supersized and the waistlines non-existent, there isn’t much room for reality, unless it comes with a documentary camera crew and a subplot involving a Kardashian.
Yet, despite the obvious challenges in capturing the essence of everyday life in Los Angeles, Lake Bell manages to slice a chewy chunk of substance from the warmed-over meat loaf of mass entertainment in her feature debut.
A quiet, character-driven comedy, In A World ... doesn’t land its punches through satire. Bell finds humour in the humanity of these blowhards, which makes it a lot more subtle but also far more relatable.
Though we rarely know their names, see their pictures or read about them, voice actors play a big part in the entertainment industry. One of the noted members of the weensy community was Don LaFontaine, who defined the sonics of the movie trailer with his velour vocals.
According to his largerthan-life legend, LaFontaine trademarked the words “In A World ...” to ensure a lock on business.
Fittingly, Bell opens her movie with LaFontaine’s voice and his signature line as she lays down the red carpet for our entry into this alternate universe, which is home to her character Carol and her father Sam (Fred Melamed).
Sam is a LaFontaine type in his own right who’s been able to make a great living using his wind for sales. But he’s never been a great father, and when he remarries a woman younger than his daughter, he does his best to kick his kid from the feathered nest.
Carol is repulsed but short of funds. Making things even more uncomfortable, she’s a voice actor — or attempting to be.
She wants to land the voice-over gig for the hottest new movie in Hollywood, but she’s facing competition from her father.
It’s a nice, round dilemma, and fused with a soft romantic side story featuring Demetri Martin as her good friend, as well as a secondary plot line involving her sister (Michaela Watkins) and her husband (Rob Corddry), Bell’s script has everything it needs to keep us entertained without too much effort.
What makes In A World ... more than just average are the choices Bell makes. Where she could go for big, she goes for small. And where she could go for the expected gag, she goes for nothing at all.
The result is a film filled with human beats, where one kiss does not a relationship make, nor does one night of drunken sex lead to rueful tragedy.
Just about everyone in this movie is charmingly out of touch with reality, and by letting us bear witness to their hubris, Bell creates a film that strips the glossy Hollywood veneer off the hotel furniture to show us the rather underwhelming truth.
She proves her directorial and writerly chops, and offers up a lighter voice in the bass chorus of mainstream comedy.