Official Synopsis:
Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) wrote, directed and starred in this humorous look at a man who wants three things in life: someone to love, a great part, and to lose weight. Unfortunately, he is 0 for 3. His girlfriend dumps him, he loses a title acting role, and he sneaks out of an Overeaters Anonymous meeting only to wind up at an ice cream parlor. There, he meets Beth (Sarah Silverman) 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? Filled with hilarious performances from a great ensemble cast including Bonnie Hunt, Amy Sedaris, Richard Kind, Paul Mazursky, and Joey Slotnick.  
  
Our Take:
Fans of Curb Your Enthusiasm shouldn’t be let down by Jeff Garlin’s writer/directorial debut I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With. The humor and style is obviously of a different style than Curb but if you love Garlin in that show, you’ll love what he has to offer here.

Plot-wise, I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With doesn’t have much to give us. We meet a large man who has troubles with his dating life and career and we follow him around as he deals with some of these issues. That clearly doesn’t exactly sound like that involved of a movie but in the talented hands of Garlin it comes off as both funny and real. Garlin is a man of pure presence; I’m sure that has something to do with his large stature but it’s mostly due to his delivery, timing, and voice. The man knows how and when to deliver a line. Since Curb is an improvised show, basically everything Garlin says in it are his own words, and here in I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With it’s more of the same. It sounds like what we’re used to from him and it’s good.

The rest of the cast is up to par with Garlin as well. The biggest problem there is that it’s mostly just the Jeff Garlin show. Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt, Dan Castellaneta, and Amy Sedaris all show up but for the most part they’re appearances are very brief; they pop in and then pop out. Then maybe they pop in and out again later on. It’s not like this is really a bad thing, it just kind of makes you wish some of them were in it for more time.

Special features on the DVD include:

* Commentary by Writer/Director Jeff Garlin – Great, great stuff. Garlin is both funny and informative the whole way through.

* Deleted Scene with Optional Commentary by Jeff Garlin (3 minutes) – A very funny scene but you can see why they needed to cut it out.

I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With is really a great little film. There are a ton of fun little rants that bridge the gaps of the story (the best one being about the great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky) and it’s these moments, coupled with Garlin’s fantastic wit, that make the film special.

RECOMMENDED!

Overall Picture:
Movie: A-
DVD: B-

- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer