wolfkin

7/10

The Opening Act is a tidy little intimate film about a comic getting his footing. It's not that your expectations have to be lowered per se but you really have to temper them.This isn't The Big Sick or Punchline or Funny People. It's not bad by any stretch but it has a very small scale.It's not the sort of movie where you see jokes left and right and end up laughing at the in movie stand up. Jimmy O. Yang's alright in it. As Will Chu a comedian who gets so little respect they spell his name Chew. (I was kinda hoping that would be a joke at one point in the movie but didn't happen. There's a lot of comedians in this all-star lineup and in a different movie they'd all be making you laugh as they one up another with hilarious jokes digetic or not, but this movie stays pretty effectively focused on Will and ends up more narrative than comedic. I think it's pretty effective at being the kind of story telling it wants to be which I think is going to be different from the kind of storytelling most people will come into this expecting. If you watch a movie about a stuntman you kind of expect to see a lot of cool stunts. If you watch a movie about a dancer you expect to see some great dancing. If you watch a movie about a musician you expect to hear some awesome music. This is a small intimate movie about a comedian and I think a lot of people will expect more comedy in it than there was. This movie is even keeled. There's no real high points and no real low points.