“I fucking hate improv.”

Don’t Think Twice is a movie about an improv comedy troop trying to make it big. It’s yet another instalment in the “funny” movies that are actually sad genre, but it’s not very good.

I want to start this review by letting you know that I dislike improv. I don’t know what it is about it, but whenever I see someone do improv on stage it makes my skin crawl and my blood boil. I fucking hate improv. So that’s where I was standing when the movie about an improv comedy troop started. Don’t Think Twice is packed full of moments that made me want to rip my hair out. I’m not sure if the improv bits were actually improv, but either way they were fucking terrible to watch. And the problem is that, past the improv the movie didn’t have a whole lot to offer.

Don’t Think Twice once again tackles the idea that sometimes funny people are sad. It didn’t add anything new to this topic, but what it did say was said pretty well in my opinion. I genuinely liked the relationships between the characters as they felt very real and relatable. And a lot of this stuff comes down to the performances. Don’t Think Twice is full of legitimately funny actors who can really deliver a solid emotional performance as well. These performances really captured the feeling of friendship and the air of bloodthirsty competitiveness that these characters had within them. It was interesting to see the dynamic shift over the movie as characters started growing more spiteful toward one another. And my point about the performances kind of hits it’s peak when I discuss the brilliant one-man show that Gillian Jacobs did toward the end of the movie. Not much from the movie had been resonating with me until that part hit and I was completely floored. The pure emotion and drive that is shown by her character in this moment really hit home with me.

But that paragraph consists of all the good things I have to say about Don’t Think Twice as the rest of the movie was pretty bland. First of all there is some not-so-subtle shade thrown at Saturday Night Live ( or ‘Weekend Live’ as it’s called in the movie ), and it gets old pretty quick. It was a good set up for a lot of the emotional parts of the movie that I talked about, but it’s tough to relentlessly mock a show for being unfunny when the movie hasn’t made me laugh since it started. You know, glass house and all of that. And I also felt that the story was way too big for 90 minutes. There are essentially 6 main characters in Don’t Think Twice And each one of them has a very interesting story. The problem is when you split all of that up and cram it into a 90 minute movie, it feels cramped and lopsided. The movie had too big of a focus; it had too much on its plate.

Overall Don’t Think Twice wasn’t a very good movie. It tried to bring up some real issues, and although it said it well it didn’t really say anything new. The high point of the film are the performances for sure. They offer both funny moments and emotional beats that really sell the world that the movie set up. I still fucking hate improv though.

I give Don’t Think Twice a C