Starring Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Ken Marino
Directed by Lake Bell
Taking its title from the opening line of countless movie trailers, Lake Bells accomplished dramedy plunges us into a reality rarely depicted on screen: Hollywoods lower rungs, where voiceover artists, editors and sound mixers hole up in tiny apartments, subsist on unglamourous freelance gigs, and struggle to maintain whatever foothold theyve established.
Amongst their number is Carol (Bell), an underemployed, emotionally-stunted vocal coach charged with unenviable tasks like teaching Eva Longoria a cockney accent. However, when a prima donna (Ken Marino, wonderfully dickish) blows off a voiceover gig, Carol pinch hits and proves herself equal to the task. And when shes suddenly in contention for the most coveted narration gig in the often sexist industry, she also finds herself in direct competition with her boorish father (Fred Melamed, all unchecked ego).
Given Bells regular gig on comedy series Childrens Hospital (plus the presence of co-stars Marino and Rob Corddry), you wait for all of this to spiral into abject buffoonery. However, the deep yearning for legitimacy shared by this subculture of strugglers keeps things surprisingly grounded. Furthermore, by incrementally revealing key details through her scripts unadorned dialogue, Bell establishes these characters shared history. Quite often, it weighs heavily on them.
And never is this more apparent than in Carol and her sisters (Michaela Watkins) need to pull themselves from the wreckage wrought by their domineering father. Consequently, despite its climactic comic showdown at the Golden Trailer Awards, In a World... ultimately takes the form of a belated coming-of-age story in which the closing message Women should sound like women. possesses considerable resonance.
