Movie review: 'I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With'

Jeff Garlin wrote, directed and stars in "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" (Credit: Alberto Rodriguez/IFC First Take/Weinstein Co.)

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3 stars (out of four)

If you’re a Chicagoan, if you have just a smidgen of interest in the city’s arts scene and if you’ve been around a while, there’s no way to be objective about “I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.”

Jeff Garlin’s movie, a multiple-cast expansion of his early ’90s monologue, revives his amiable, sad-sack persona and overweight bachelor hungry for love.

But it’s also a low-budget paean to Chicago’s comic universe, performed by a cavalcade of stalwarts who’ve worked here over the last two decades. And it’s a paean to that scruffy, Midwestern brand of comedy, that loopy mix of Hyde Park and the Grabowskis, associated not just with Second City (whose stage and facade are in the film), but the likes of the Annoyance Theatre, where the real-life Garlin returned earlier this week.

And it’s a paean to North Side life, with scenes shot along shady side streets, in front of a trademark hot dog stand, at Sweetie’s ice cream parlor and even outside the Music Box Theatre, where this movie opens Friday and where patrons are sure to get a jolt of life imitating art as they watch.

 And never forget Garlin’s beloved Cubs. A bittersweet motif has Garlin munching late-night snacks, parked at Kenmore and Waveland Avenues, the Wrigley Field scoreboard looming as icon.

Stylistically, the movie is “Clerks” meets Chicago improv—a few scenes are even set at a convenience store. There’s a deliberately amateurish, make-it-up-as-we-go feel reminiscent of “Clerks” too.

The cast is all-star if you know anything about Chicago comedy. Bonnie Hunt, in a lead role, shows off once again her delicious mix of tough and tender, and there are bits from Tim Kazurinsky, Scott Adsit, Dan Castellaneta, Cindy Caponera, Amy Sedaris, Steve Dahl and David Pasquesi, who plays Garlin’s best friend. Chicago veteran Larry Neumann Jr. manages a mini-tour de force as an addled homeless type who can recite from memory all nude scenes by any movie actress. Also on tap: Mina Kolb, Gina Gershon and Paul Mazursky.

Some bits work, some don’t, and some of these performers don’t get to show off their personal best. You don’t get a hint of Rose Abdoo’s great gifts from her brief cameo. Then again, Richard Kind demonstrates how he’s one of the more reliable scene-stealers in the business.

Garlin (who is star, writer and director) is actually understated and sweet, channeling “Marty” with put-upon stoicism and pudgy grace. You like his character a great deal, someone never more sympathetic than during a daffy interlude with Sarah Silverman, as an oil-and-vinegary whack job.

I’ve no clue how the world will take to “I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.” For Chicago, it’s a scrumptious, four-star banquet.

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