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I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
IFC First Take

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With reviews


7.0

based on 18 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
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FILM:

This Filthy World

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING:

Starring Jeff Garlin, Sarah Silverman, Elle Fanning, Dan Castellaneta, Gina Gershon, Bonnie Hunt, Richard Kind, and Amy Sedaris

James is a frustrated and underappreciated Chicago actor who lives with his mother and has only really wanted three things in life: someone to love him, a great part, and to lose weight. Unfortunately, he is 0 for 3. His girlfriend dumps him, he loses the title roles in a remake of Paddy Chayefsky’s Marty to teen idol Aaron Carter, and he sneaks out of an Overeaters Anonymous meeting only to wind up at an ice cream parlor. There, he meets Beth, who quickly wins his heart but will this cause James more problems than it solves? Or has he finally found someone to eat cheese with? (IFC Films)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Jeff Garlin
DIRECTED BY:	Jeff Garlin
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 15, 2008 Theatrical: September 5, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	80 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

A wry movie that, packed with his well-known friends and scored intermittently to bouncy accordion music, plays like a softer episode of "Curb."

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Garlin's movie is beautiful in its own way. It also suggests that David's show would still be brilliant without the aggravation. I'm not saying that David should renounce misanthropy. But maybe he could curb less of Garlin's apparent enthusiasm for people.

Chicago Tribune Sid Smith

If you’re a Chicagoan, if you have just a smidgen of interest in the city’s arts scene and if you’ve been around a while, there’s no way to be objective about I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is a minor movie, but a big-time minor movie...If there is such a thing as a must-see three-star movie, here it is.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

May be one of the wisest studies of urban loneliness since Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty."

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

Laid back and affectionate, “Cheese” is the movie version of a dear friend you could spend all day with.

Slate Dana Stevens

Feels more like a series of skits than a movie, though it does tie up several plot threads in a lyrical last scene worthy of vintage Woody Allen.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Unassuming and sweet-natured, and Garlin earns a lot of goodwill with his off-the-cuff wisecracks.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The film is visually bland and hits a few comic dead ends, but there's an element of pathos that allows us to believe in the plight of the fictional James.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Cheese is written with plenty of sophisticated wit, but it is not quite convincing as a movie.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Slight but charming.

TV Guide Ken Fox

None of it really adds up to much but it's smart, low-key fun -- terrible title and dangling preposition notwithstanding.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Garlin, like Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine in "Marty," is good company, even when his out-of-control eating and self-loathing threaten to overwhelm him.

Washington Post John Maynard

The entire film carries a whiff of "vanity project," with several of Garlin's comedic buddies reporting for duty.

Los Angeles Times Robert Abele

James and Beth have fun in a grocery store pretending to be different characters meeting in the aisles. As they learn, sometimes the moment works, sometimes it doesn't. The same can be said for this unfailingly modest film.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Never completely takes off, yet somewhat overestimates the surrounding zaniness. Still, any opportunity to witness the improvisatory skills of Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt and Amy Sedaris should not be missed.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The story ultimately lands in incoherence; but the cameos and local details, and even some of the gags, keep it perky.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Garlin's directing has little pacing, and many of the borderline gags could have been salvaged with some sharper editing. And there's a shocking amount of jokes and situations that just don't work.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a7:
Before Beth(Sarah Silverman) agrees to sleep with James (Jeff Garlin), she insists that the Second City comedian throw her out of his apartment. Beth is adamant. And then a fleeting thought: this is just like Dorothy Vallens(Isabella Rosselini) in "Blue Velvet", when she orders Jeffrey Beaumont(Kyle McLachlan) to hit her. Echoes of Woody Allen is easy to detect in "I Want Somebody to Eat Cheese With", in particular, the final scene between Garlin and Silverman, which is a correction of sorts to the face-to-face meeting that never happened between Woody Allen and Mariel Hemmingway in "Manhattan", since this time, the right heart is broken. Or maybe, nebbish guys are just hotter than fat guys. But that's beside the point. "I Want Somebody to Eat Cheese With" suggests what a romantic-comedy directed by David Lynch might look like. Instead of meet cute, Jeff and Beth meet strange, in an ice cream parlour, which plays like a scene straight out of "Twin Peaks"(the series, not "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me"). And then there's the surreal casting behind "Marty", the remake of the Ernest Borgnine film that James wanted to star in. In real life, there's only one "Marty", and that's filmmaker Martin Scorsese. James is "The King of Comedy". When he sleeps with Beth, the line that Robert DeNiro(as Rupert Pupkin) delivers in the story's denouement is sort of befitting here, which went like this: "But I figure it this way: better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime." James might not be "The King of Comedy", but he certainly qualifies to be the "King of Pain". The film's tone is strange for a comedy. I think it's intentional.

Xavier P. gave it a6:
Just alright movie. Something's missing. Could have been great.

Jeff J. gave it an8:
Dude, you forgot another funny person in the film: the voice of Homer Simpson. He's also in this film. Sweet.

Frank T. gave it an8:
Garlin! My man maine! This certainly seems like a funny movie to me. A heavy set comedian and his pizza, with Sarah Silverman, Gina Gershon, and Al from Home Improvement.

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I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With IFC First Take

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
IFC First Take