Phil

This deep-thoughts comedy is a must-watch for fans of Greg’s, but also for anyone who wants something beyond frat boy comedy or the typical Apatovian-adjacent improv stuff that has become de rigueur at this point. It’s a special movie that I hope people enjoy as much as I did.

It’s a daring movie in its way—suicide is often inexplicable, and Phil treats it exactly that way. But Mr. Kinnear might have had more confidence in his audience, and maybe in himself.

A project clearly made by a first-time actor-turned-director, who is most concerned with their own scenes and casting.

It approaches everything from suicide to Socrates with a facile touch, dealing with serious issues with an almost startling lack of depth and intelligence.

Phil is a trifle, and there’s no harm in that, but it’s an unconvincing trifle. The words “coy” and “whimsical” scarcely do justice to its coy whimsicality.

The only thing grimmer than the material in Phil is its execution.

The kind of bad movie that makes you wonder, "How did so many good actors decide to take this job?," this one comes with an easy answer: First-time director Greg Kinnear presumably used a career's worth of goodwill to enlist co-stars Emily Mortimer, Luke Wilson and others.