STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“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.”

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STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“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.”

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STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“‘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.”

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STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“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.”

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STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“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.”

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STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“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.”

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STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“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.”

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STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“Standing Up, Falling Down Star Billy Crystal Says Ben Schwartz Is ‘Stuck’ With Him as a Friend.”

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STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN

“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. ”

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