Review of Don't Think Twice (2016) by K Nife C — 13 Sep 2016

To begin with, this isn't a bad movie. Everything that needs to be done in terms of executing a film with this premise is sufficiently done. The story concerns Keegan Michael-Key leaving his close-knit improv troupe to join an analog Saturday Night Live show.

The group has interpersonal problems from that point on. Unfortunately, I'm hard-pressed to leave out the phrase "white people problems" in this review. Spineless, petty, apprehensive, envious and desperate white people bicker then joke and repeat ad nauseum.

They see their best friend for years become successful and immediately hound him for writing gigs and auditions - then come to harbor antipathy for him when he becomes the meme of the week. They then start to choke on stage and resent him (and gradually each other) for their own shortcomings as comics, writers, and basic human beings.

I'm no aficionado of improv comedy, but I found the improv performances (however simulated or off-the-cuff they may be) to be somewhat clever, but mostly lackluster, eliciting a few chuckles throughout the film, primarily in the darkest jokes.

Mostly, everything is awkward, painful, and depressing, and to admit a kinship to these characters would be to admit that we as an audience are more pathetic than they are, and I refuse to fall for that bait.

I've got my own problems, but I don't need to have my face shoved in shit to know that nobody is perfect and life ain't fair. Mediocrity is not a pathway to catharsis.