Ally Pankiw’s I Used To Be Funny has its heart in the right place, but its execution leaves a lot to be desired. Torn between being a bittersweet coming-of-age comedy and a crime thriller, the film often can’t make up its mind what kind of movie it is, resulting in a mishmash of flashbacks, predictable mystery, stilted and unfunny dialogue, and a swirling melodramatic score lifted straight from daytime television. Despite a reasonably solid story backbone, Pankiw can’t seem to make the pieces fit together in a way that’s formally satisfying, which makes the effort both too many things and nothing all at once.
It’s clear from the beginning that Sam (a reasonably funny and agreeable Rachel Sennott) has experienced some kind of trauma and suffers from PTSD. Her accommodating friends may know her story and tiptoe around the subject, but we’re kept in the dark about any specifics. Whatever she’s hiding from us, it’s ruined her budding career as a stand-up comedian (hence the film’s title), which naturally worsens the depressive hole she’s in.
We soon find out, via a series of clunky flashbacks, that Sam used to nanny a young girl named Brooke (Olga Petsa), who has recently gone missing and is considered by the police to be in some kind of danger. From here, it’s no leap to surmise that Sam’s predicament and Brooke’s disappearance are linked, but it takes nearly the entire movie to understand how. That is, unless you follow the easily spotted trail of clues presented almost immediately after the flashbacks begin and figure it all out before the first act is over.
Sennot’s performance as Sam is by far the film’s high point, but that doesn’t mean the self-deprecating humor that’s been written for her always works — or even mostly works. This shortcoming is partly due to the blandness of everyone acting around her and partly because her dark and edgy comedic stage persona is a played-out cliche. If her co-stars (which include Jason Jones as Brooke’s father, Cameron; Sabrina Jalees and Caleb Hearon as Sam’s roommates, Paige and Philip; and Ennis Esmer as her boyfriend) could muster an ounce of believable dialogue between them, Sam’s black humor might occasionally land, but no such luck. And while using comedy as a coping mechanism for past trauma is a perfectly valid pursuit, the young comedian’s stage act needs some serious work if we’re to believe she’s the darling of the Toronto comedy scene the film claims she is.
When you top all of this off with one of the most terribly acted and anticlimactic endings I’ve seen in recent years, I Used To Be Funny drops from nearly passable to barely watchable. It has the underpinnings of a worthwhile story and has a few moments of clarity that almost give its dark subject matter the gravity it deserves, but ultimately falls too far from the mark to retain any measure of plausible import.
Originally published by ASHEVILLE MOVIES.
James is a writer, skateboarder, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.