Movies: In A World . . .

I'd heard really cute things about this movie and finally had the chance to sit down and watch it. And it's as good as they say.

Written and directed by Lake Bell, she also stars as Carol, daughter of a semi-famous voice actor (with the necessary nod to the late, great Don LaFontaine). Carol scrapes together a living as a voice coach supplemented with whatever voiceover work she can pick up. But when she subs in on a demo for the far more famous Gustav (who is also her father's protégé) and then lands the actual job, her career starts to take off.

Meanwhile, Carol's dad has kicked her out, so Carol goes to live with her sister Dani and brother-in-law Moe. Rob Corddry does a phenomenal job in the role of Moe, just the right amounts of awkward and sympathetic. Complications ensue when Carol asks Dani to get a voice recording of an Irish client at the hotel when Dani is concierge. But because this is a comedy, it all comes right in the end.

Thing is, though this is a comedy, it's not the slapstick kind. It has heart. It's a sweet movie. But if you're looking for laugh-out-loud funny, you may be disappointed.

It's interesting from a Hollywood "boys' club" perspective as well. Without hitting viewers over the head with the misogyny inherent in the biz, it does a fine job of portraying it, I'm guessing because Bell has lived it.

The climax comes when Carol, her dad, and Gustav all go after the same huge job as, more or less, official voice for the trailers for a "quadrilogy"—four movies being made from a series of dystopian YA novels. It seems to me, since the novels are about Amazonian women, they'd want a female voice for the trailers. But you'll have to watch the movie yourself to see if it happens. Or look it up on, like, Wikipedia. Since there's probably a summary that tells you.

In A World . . . is definitely worth a watch, though. And made me think Lake Bell would be awesome in the lead of the rom-com I co-wrote, but that's something else again.