Review of Peep World (2010) by Kyle G — 12 Jul 2012

A uniquely promising cast, off a uniquely promising premise, irredeemably spoiled by a terrible script. The family portrayed here, a group of detestable anti-heroes, is the victim of an unfunny, crass, lame sack of gags, not even a story. The movie is an awkward and experimental-seeming failure. I don't know why it was ever produced.

The Meyerwitz patriarch (Ron Rifkin) is a real estate tycoon whose birthday dinner will come shortly after the success of a tell-all novel, villifying the family, by one of its sons: Nathan (Ben Schwartz), a smug and cold-hearted neurotic. His siblings -- Cheri (Sarah Silverman) the diva daughter, Jack (Michael C. Hall) the responsible son, and Joel (Rainn Wilson) the fuckup -- all prepare for a family implosion while sorting out their own dramas.

Nathan is stuck promoting his book with pretty PR rep Meg (Kate Mara). When she asks him for some advice, he spits back, "Writing is not just something you can pick up; it's not Spanish!" (Hehe, so, okay, I guess it _is_ like Spanish?) And in a terribly uncomfortable and unfunny side-plot, he decides to try a risky premature ejaculation treatment that very day, and it doesn't go as planned. Um... no one suggested masturbation? That's stupid.

Cheri, the most shallowly offended by Nathan's book, is preparing a lawsuit against him and stewing over her resentment; she's affiliated with Jews For Jesus, and she's crushed on by Ephraim (Stephen Tobolowsky), a nutty religious guy. Jack, about to become a family man, is escaping his wife by sojourns to a porn shop, and the strains on his marriage are tightening too far; the pressures of supporting reckless Joel (Joel to Jack: "I'd like to retire at 40."/Jack to Joel: "You're 38."/Joel to Jack: "C'mon, bro, that's too negative.") are pretty tight too. Joel, the roundest character but as boring as the rest, is dealing with credit problems and a shiftless future.

Some of these offer interesting crises, but they're all handled with such depressing laziness that I lose interest soon enough. What did the book say, and why does it matter?

Some metafictional possibilities pop up soon enough... Joel's girlfriend, a black woman, observes smartly after Sherri and Jack are particularly sniping and nasty, "All this for a book? I have cousins that shot each other and got over it." So the story's all about race then, just a bunch of squabbling whitebread Jews? Or shortly thereafter, Nathan begins to pontificate at an author-inquisitive hottie, "That's the great thing about writing: it's something you can develop with the right mentor," leering at her subtly. So it's all some sexcapade then, just a sleazy pick-up line of sorts?

Or maybe these farcical characters are just sketches for a more interesting, well turned, unique story later on. I'd like to see that one, if it ever comes and it's not narrated by some acid bottom-of-the-barrel hack like Lewis Black.