Spin Me Round (2022) - A Peculiar Comedy

Spin Me Round is a comedy thriller directed by Jeff Baena starring Alison Brie; both co-wrote the screenplay.

Plot

An employee at a restaurant chain wins a trip Florence organized by the company. Once there, she will meet the rich and charismatic company owner, and things will takes strange turns.

Review

Judging by the movie poster one would imagine that we are about to witness a knee-slapping, hilarious satire…. But, no such luck. Spin Me Round is not what the kitschy cover suggests – which would be a full out slapstick satire. It is instead a type of comedy that we would classify as “auteur-comedy” with a faint surrealist slant, which many might find funny, while others will be left open-mouthed, wondering, “what the hell is this?”

We have to say that the second reaction was to a certain extent the one we had, while we still can acknowledge the merits in this new collaboration between Jezz Baena and his muse, who have with their take on humor made a romantic comedy that seems parody the genre itself, while living up to all the basic requirements, making it watchable (or not) with irony aplenty (or not).

If you are looking for a “Wes Andersonian” type of comedy without Anderson’s movie aesthetics that so many love, and just as many dislike, this is your kind of movie. It is understated (most of the time), cooky, but not unkind. Note, though that it is also the kind of humor that will leave some audiences unamused.

The thing is that Spin Me Round is quite flat, it doesn’t stand out visually, nor does it have a gripping tempo. Its humor is very self-contained, and the premise is quite routine: charming young woman travels abroad, and meets a charismatic rich dude. I mean, they are parodying the genre, after all. Are they not?

Our Opinion

It was far from what we expected, and we acknowledge that that was precisely what they tried to evoke in the audience. It is not an overt humor that would make us laugh out loud in glee, but it does have its moments. We were left with a blank feeling, perhaps an existential crisis: a bitter-sweet comedy, perhaps?

Other Reviews

“Jeff Baena’s latest outing with his favorite muses is more accessible than recent efforts, but can’t quite live up to its inherently funny premise.”
Kate Erbland: IndieWire

“Ultimately ‘Spin Me Round’ is like a bad vacation where even the gorgeous Italian seaside isn’t enough to make the time spent feel worth it.”
Marya E. Gates: The Playlist