Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Hey. Who's That Voice? Review of "In A World"
In a world...
of show business...
one actress...
who has been in several projects...
including a sci-fi show, an HBO series ...
and a popular show on Adult Swim...
wrote and directed a film...
about a woman trying to make her voice heard...
in a world...where only men's voices are heard...
and bring it to the silver screen.
Will this woman's words be read and heard?
In the places where In A World did play in theaters, it got some good notices. It's too bad it didn't play everywhere...including Sacramento.
Thanks to digital media, the movie is finally here on DVD. Lake Bell, who's had some experience in voice-over work before joining Children's Hospital, plays Carol, a sometime voice-over artist who's doing "voice crafting" for people including Eva Longoria. Her dad Sam (Fred Melamed) is a VO legend, but keeps telling her daughter the industry will never accept the idea of a female voice in blockbuster trailers.
Word gets out a big movie trailer is coming, and it will start with the words "In A World...", practically patented by Don LaFontaine. Its a gig a lot of people want, but Carol suddenly gets into the mix after she fills in for a movie trailer VO job.
She also gets involved with VO diva Gustav, played by Ken Marino, who's also done some VO work among other things. Thing is, he doesn't know she's the one who took one of his jobs. He also wants that "In A World" job, and soon so does Sam.
Meanwhile, Carol's sister Dani (Michaela Watkins) agrees to record the voice of an Irish guest (Jason O'Mara) at the hotel where she's working as a favor to Carol. However, Dani's also falling for him. There's also Davis (Demetri Martin), who has a crush for Carol but can't find his voice to let her know.
Bell could have made this movie about a girl who wants to show her voice can get people to watch a film just as well as any man. However, she really makes it about finding your voice, and being respected and heard. Will Carol getting that trailer accomplish that? Well, Carol isn't the only one who learns to get heard by the end of the movie.
The movie also includes Nick Offerman (in a rare clean-shaven appearance), Rob Corddry, Tig Nataro, and Geena Davis. By the way, Melamed also played a VO diva when he appeared on The Crazy Ones a few months ago.
The film earned Bell a screenwriting award at Sundance last year, and she's up for Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards in March. Let's hope we will hear from her again in screenwriting and directing.
In a world....namely this one.
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