Don't Think Twice (*****)

We meet an improv troupe called "The Commune." They are based in a small New York theater, perform nightly to a small crowd for $5 a ticket. Though they don't have much, and most work the odd job on the side, we know that this is their passion. They are best friends who stay in on weekends and dream of being cast on "Weekend Live" (an obvious play on Saturday Night Live, the ultimate goal of most comedians in their 30's). What this movie does so well is try to figure out what would happen if one of these friends actually hit it big. In a tight community of struggling actors, what would happen when it becomes apparent that not everyone is bound for stardom.

DON'T THINK TWICE is about as good of a movie as I have seen all year. It's directed by Mike Birbiglia (who also has a costarring role as an improv instructor who just can't seem to catch a break in anything besides romance) and has all the makings of a classic exploration of the human condition. Keegan-Michael Key plays Jay (you may recognize him from MadTV, and I wonder if this at all echoes his rise to fame over the past decade), the most recognizable of the troupe and one who is known to break out a Barack Obama impression when talent scouts are nearby. He is one of the group, but secretly dreams of breaking away. While the other members of Commune feel safe amongst numbers, Jay knows there is much more he is capable of.

Jay dates Samantha (Gillian Jacobs is absolutely incredible in this role), a quirky girl who is nearly the exact opposite of him. She is shy in front of large groups but performs improv with ease every night. Both her and Jay get asked to audition for Weekend Live (to the frustration of the rest of the cast) and yet on the day of her audition, she chickens out and decides that maybe it's not for her. Jay is cast on the spot following his audition. He tries to talk to her that night about what went wrong, and already we know that this relationship is doomed to fall apart.

The ensemble cast is all around remarkable. In a group of six performers, each is fleshed out and given a soul. Allison is the tiny girl who dreams of publishing a graphic novel. Lindsay comes from wealth and yet still collects unemployment checks to save her from having to find a real job. Bill is arguably the funniest of the bunch, awkward with glasses, trying to cope with the fact that his father is near death.

The fun with the movie comes from their performances on stage. Filmed handheld and constantly circling the cast, comedy seeps through the screen as though we were watching the intimate comedy routine in person. We start to understand the ins and outs of improvisation, and yet this is in no way a movie about improv in general. It's an honest, timeless human drama that simply uses live television where a classic story might have just used a knife in the back.

There is such heart in the story, in the characters, and by the end (as cliched as it may sound) it really felt as though I was beginning to know these people in and out. As Jay becomes more famous, the audiences begin taking requests for him to play some of his TV characters (though he is now cast on TV, he still returns to the Commune to help his friends and perform more casually alongside them). The rest of the cast becomes frustrated while Jay just soaks his fame up. Eventually it builds to the point where they perform a skit in which Jay has finally died and they circle his coffin, remembering him for the airhead he was. Everything they say is true, and the audience laughs and laughs. Amidst the realization of failure, maybe the movie is trying to tell us that the best thing to do is just laugh. It seems to work.