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Fantasy Life movie review

Screener Squad: Fantasy Life

FANTASY LIFE MOVIE REVIEW


Are you a fan of Noah Baumbach movies? Maybe some classic Woody Allen New York Jewish anxiety films? How about a quiet walking and talking film? Well, Fantasy Life might be right up your alley. This feature directorial debut from Matthew Shear takes us on a sun-soaked stroll through the Big Apple and Martha’s Vineyard. It’s an introspective dramedy about ambition, identity, and the stories people tell themselves to get through the day. The film follows a young man who has just lost his finance job and suffered a massive anxiety attack. He stumbles into a job as a nanny for a once impressive now faded actress (Amanda Peet) and her bass player husband (Alessandro Nivola). Melina, Drew, and T.C. relax on the One Of Us New England beachfront property to discuss the naturalistic performances, overlapping dialogue, and that familiar feeling of being caught between who you are and who you thought you’d be.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Matthew Shear

STARRING: Amanda Peet, Matthew Shear, Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, Jessica Harper, Holland Taylor, Sheng Wang, Sophie von Haselberg

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

T.C. De Witt (Screener Squad)

T.C. De Witt is a multi-awarded writer/director originally from Wisconsin and now based in Los Angeles. His life has been devoted to the arts since he was a child. He’s been a stage performer, playwright, stand-up comic, film and television actor, radio DJ, podcaster published author, recorded musician, and comic writer/illustrator. He is now a professional screenwriter and has been thriving for the past decade, regularly offering his talents to production studios in LA, Chicago, Milwaukee, and internationally in Sydney and Poland. He’s provided content for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and several YouTube partners. His films have screened internationally, and his stageplays have been performed across the country. In the last ten years, he has directed 57 films, 23 episodes of his series The One Minute Rewatch, 300+ episodes of podcasts, and his multi-award-winning short film Screen: Righter screened at the Festival de Cannes in 2016. He has released two feature films, The Princess Knight and A Christmas Sunset. He thrives on collaboration and the thrill of sharing stories in all forms.

 

Melina Eames (Screener Squad)

Melina first discovered that she carried the nerd gene at the tender age of four following her exposure to a little film called A New Hope. In the twenty-some years that followed, Melina continued to grow into her geek identity through the discovery of Batman, Mst3k, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and The Mandalorian. But perhaps her most significant discovery came at the age of fourteen when a night of YouTube mining led her to the review site of Spill.com. Melina became a devoted follower whose fandom did not end with the site’s demise. By then, it had worked its dark magic and left her with a love and appreciation for film criticism that she has yet to shrug.

 

Drew Tinnin (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews, Deliberations of Doom)

Drew Tinnin is a Rondo Award nominated interviewer and critic who has worked at SiriusXM’s Fangoria Radio and Fangoria magazine in NYC, as well as the London-based Dazed Digital. Currently a regular contributor to the Dread Central Network, he’s excited to join up with some old friends and other film fans on One of Us as a new contributor to Screener Squad.

 

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