Review of Sleepwalk with Me (2012) by Nick M — 13 Sep 2012

I feel like I should begin by saying that I sort of have a bias here. I'm a huge Mike Birbiglia fan, while there's a few other stand-ups who I like more, there was a period where I was really really into stand-up comedy and discovering underground stand-up comedians and Mike Birbiglia was my favorite. I've been watching him for about 6 years and I actually went to the live show of "Sleepwalk With Me" in NY and own the album. So going in, I basically already knew the material and really enjoyed it but I was still excited to see how it'd translate on film.

Now all that being said, I was still actually very surprised by how well it worked. The film actually is quite different from the live show too. While the live show seems more or less about how Mike Birbiglia became who he is, the film focuses even more on his relationship with Abby and his progression as a stand-up comedian. Also while Mike Birbiglia clearly is working with a very skilled team, there are some moments where I actually thought he shows real potential as a comedy filmmaker. I mean, you can tell where the film came from, it's very dialogue and voice-over heavy, but it translates well, and there's way he nicely reappropriated some of his material to fit organically in the story.

Also if you follow film news on the blogs, you've probably noticed that Mike Birbiglia, NPR, and even some of Birbiglia's fellow comedians and friends Joss Whedon, Noah Baumbach, Lena Dunham, have been making a real effort to get this film playing in as many theaters as possible through a social media campaign. I really do pray they succeed cause this is a film that could easily be a crossover success. It's very very funny, warm, refreshing, and even insightful. I think the real triumph of the story though is the honestly that Birbiglia tells it with, and it's something that even caught me off-guard when I first saw the live show. There's things he says about his family, his girlfriend, and especially himself that you'd think he might polish but he doesn't shy away from the truth.

This is honestly one of my favorite films of the year so far and even as a huge Mike Birbiglia fan, I'm a little surprised at just how much I loved it.