It is probably no accident that among Matthew Shear‘s acting credits are no less than four movies directed by New York filmmaker extraordinaire Noah Baumbach, or that one of his most recent is another angst-ridden Jewish comedy, Between the Temples. Clearly he has spent his downtime on those sets soaking up the atmosphere and the comedic beats in preparation for his writing-directing debut Fantasy Life, premiering at SXSW today in the Narrative Feature competition.
Assembling a dream cast of actors who know how to deliver this kind of New York Jewish-centric character-driven comedy that Woody Allen trademarked and others like Baumbach have also travelled in so successfully, Shear actually seems to me to be more of a modern-day Richard Benjamin who also turned into a fine filmmaker in his own right. That seems to be the trajectory here except Shear is clearly cribbing from his own life and experience with depression, anxiety and self-admitted mental illness to craft, however loosely, a character teetering on the edge and a story close to his own world.
Here he plays a young man named Sam, distraught over losing his job as a paralegal, in the midst of a panic attack, and in session with his psychiatrist Fred (Judd Hirsch) when we meet him. As he leaves the office, Fred’s receptionist and wife (as it turns out) Helen (Andrea Martin) takes pity on him and, needing a babysitter for her three granddaughters, enlists him for the job. Although he isn’t exactly nanny (or manny) material, he gives it a shot. The father David (Alessandro Nivola) is in deep need of help and welcomes him into the apartment of kid mayhem as he leaves for the night. David’s marriage to the sometimes absent Dianne (Amanda Peet) is rocky to say the least, and he is about to go on a world tour with his band, so Sam finds himself with a bigger gig than imagined. He also finds himself eventually bonding with Dianne, a TV actress whose career like her marriage has also hit the rocks. Her own mental illness and depression oddly matches Sam’s and the new manny finds himself growing closer to her just as he gets invited to join the extended family gathering for the summer on Martha’s Vineyard, with crush Dianne, her husband, their kids and two sets of grandparents including Sam’s psychiatrist in tow no less.
Shear has crafted a classic kind of family dynamic for this smart, dialogue-driven comedy, but he shows a great deal of promise in carefully keeping the inherent drama beneath the surface, particularly involving mental illness and depression, without using any of it as the butt of a joke. These characters and their deep anxieties and life problems feel very real. Shear also shows promise as a talented director of fellow actors while also carving himself a major role as Allen often did.
The casting here is perfection. Peet, out of films in the past few years, is thankfully back in style with a role she makes her own, giving this drifting soul real gravitas and poignancy. Nivola also hits the right notes as a man trying to be a good father in a situation where the mother just isn’t there completely and his career takes him on the road.
You can’t ask for a better supporting cast than the likes of Hirsch, and the wonderful Bob Balaban as the other grandfather whose extremely negative attitude toward interloper Sam is hilarious. Martin also dives in with relish here, and other well-known actors turn up including Holland Taylor for a brief scene as another psychiatrist.
In the end, however, this is Shear’s show, both in front of and behind the camera, and if Fantasy Life is any indication, he has a bright future with both.
Producers are Charlie Alderman, Chris Dodds, Phil Keefe, Peet, Emily McCann Lesser, David Bernon and Sam Slate.
Title: Fantasy Life
Festival: SXSW (Narrative Competition)
Director-screenwriter: Matthew Shear
Cast: Matthew Shear, Amanda Peet, Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, Jessica Harper, Holland Taylor, Sheng Wang, Sophie von Haselberg.
Sales agent: CAA
Running time: 1 hr 31 mins