“ ‘We Broke Up’ catches a rom-com ripple and rides it toward sweet laughs and some authentic insights. It even surprises — an increasingly hard thing to pull off in the genre. Plying emotionally attuned dialogue and deft delivery, director Jeff Rosenberg and co-writer Laura Jacqmin know their way around a laugh or two.”
“The leads, William Jackson Harper and Aya Cash, are our friends from TV (The Good Place and You’re The Worst), and they’re charming and sometimes heartbreaking here as Doug and Lori, a couple dealing with the realization that they might want different things after years together. Directed by TV veteran Jeff Rosenberg (who co-wrote with playwright Laura Jacqmin), the film has a throwback indie feel while both leaning into and evading rom-com tropes.”
“We Broke Up is the little film that could, finally premiering in theaters on April 16 and on VOD April 23 after nearly a decade since its inception. Writers Jeff Rosenberg and Laura Jacqmin brought a dying relationship to life in their unusual romantic comedy, and brought together such a stellar cast for a 15-day shoot that it seems almost kismet.”
“William Jackson Harper Rom-Com ‘We Broke Up’ Sells to Vertical Entertainment, to Debut in April”.
“Vertical Entertainment has landed North American and U.K. rights to “We Broke Up,” a romantic comedy starring William Jackson Harper of “The Good Place” fame and “You’re the Worst” actor Aya Cash… John Hermann, Matt Ratner, Mason Novick and Rosenberg served as producers, as well as Particular Crowd and Tilted Windmill Productions in association with Mintz Entertainment.”
“19 Oscar Contenders to Consider… Best Supporting Actor: Billy Crystal, ‘Standing Up, Falling Down’.”
“Continuing the Academy’s failure to recognize some of the comedic greats, it’s a travesty that one of their definitive representatives of the telecast has never gotten on their radar… In the independent film from director Matt Ratner, his role as an alcoholic dermatologist who forms an unlikely friendship with a stand-up comedian (played effortlessly by Ben Schwartz), presents the most urgent moment in his career to give him his overdue citation.”
“Director Matt Ratner gets strong performances from both Schwartz (a veteran of TV series like Parks and Recreation) and Crystal. In fact, this may be the best performance that Crystal has ever given…Crystal finds the character’s self-sabotaging edge as well as his prickly sense of humor. Their relationship unfolds unpredictably and unsentimentally. Both the director and the writer also deserve credit for etching a rich gallery of supporting characters, every one of whom is expertly played.”
“‘Standing Up, Falling Down’ is a small, independent comedy-drama that does a number of things very well. It does them all quietly. The scenes don’t swing for the fences. The emotional work is true, not pushed, and by the end, the movie ends up giving the sense of a world.
It’s the first feature film from director Matt Ratner, who must really be good with actors, because everyone is strong in this. In even the small roles, the actors know who they are, what they’re doing and why. This gives a sense of texture, of histories that are implicit, mutual affections that are understood and don’t need to be spoken. Most notably, Billy Crystal has never been better.”
“This is some of the best work of Crystal’s career, an understated but knowing performance that never goes for the kind of easy sentimentality he has sometimes done in the past. Schwartz also hits a career highpoint here with great support from the entire perfectly chosen cast.”
“A throwback buddy movie that would have been no stranger to 1980s cinemas, Matt Ratner’s Standing Up, Falling Down shows how a well-worn premise need not impact enjoyment when there’s a terrific cast and crisp writing at your disposal.”
“Being in your mid-thirties and trying to grapple with the pieces of your life that keep toppling over like dominoes is hard enough, and doing that while living in your parents’ guest bedroom is just salt in the wound. By some stroke of luck, though, Scott finds a most unlikely companion in this most unlikely of places. Marty (Billy Crystal) is an eccentric, middle-aged dermatologist who, on the outside, doesn’t seem like a guy who’d have a lot in common with Scott, and although they’ve led different lives, they form a unique bond in the regrets and failures they both carry.”
“Executive producer and co-star Schwartz spoke with EW on what it was like to work with the When Harry Met Sally and Monsters Inc star, including what movies he would like to jump into from Crystal’s filmography and the time they visited the synagogue Crystal got bar mitzvah’d in.”
“Standing Up, Falling Down Star Billy Crystal Says Ben Schwartz Is ‘Stuck’ With Him as a Friend.”
“It was a perfect recipe for one of the best post-movie Q-and-A sessions in a long time at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The film "Standing Up, Falling Down" about a failed stand-up comic returning home to live with his parents had just ended, and the crowd was treated to an extra-long, extra-funny chat with the movie's two stars — Billy Crystal and Ben Schwartz. ”
“Destined is a human story about interconnection as well as our need to be connected. Everyone’s choices in life affect everyone else in sometimes catastrophic ways. When relationships break, they weigh on the former consorts.”
“Phillips, who has the everyman look of a younger John Heard, is such a sympathetic sad sack throughout “Punching Henry” that it’s occasionally discomforting to watch what happens to him. But that is a major part of this low-key comedy’s charm: You’re never laughing so hard at the protagonist that you don’t feel at least a tiny bit of his pain.”
“Nearly six years after Punching The Clown won Best Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival, a sequel is in the works.”
“For a film that tackles such weighty subjects as consent & homophobia, First Girl I Loved never gets bogged down in melodrama. It’s a kind film – heartfelt and empathetic – a memory more than earned.”
“Seventeen-year-old Anne just fell in love with Sasha, the most popular girl at her L.A. public high school. But when Anne tells her best friend, Clifton—who has always harbored a secret crush on her—he does his best to get in the way.”
“With premieres galore, Day One films, an Oscar winner, a Jonas brother and diverse voices, the Sundance Festival today rolled out the 65 films that will make up its 2016 U.S. Competition and World Cinema Competition Dramatic and Documentary categories as well as the out-of-competition NEXT slate…”
“One of the most intriguing and successful of these L.A.-themed movies is Aram, Aram, set in the Armenian community of Hollywood. First-time writer-director Christopher Chambers has crafted a potent, lovingly detailed evocation of an unfamiliar California subculture.”