As is the case with several other prominent stand-up comedians, Demetri Martin of Daily Show fame set his sights on a bigger project -- a feature-length film. In fact, Martin’s Dean, which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, took home the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature. That seemingly indicates everything you need to know about Dean, but perhaps the pickings were slim at Tribeca this year. Dean is an entertaining film -- perhaps even a good one -- but owes much of that distinction to nearly every indie rom-com that came before it.
Martin stars as the titular character, a Brooklyn cartoonist who is going through a rough patch after his mother dies. Life’s curveballs don’t stop there, either. Dean and his fiancee (Christine Woods) recently split up, his relationship with his widowed father (Kevin Kline) is awkward, to say the least, and perhaps worst of all, he can’t draw. This is a massive dilemma considering he’s three missed deadlines overdue on his new art book.
Side note: Dean’s doodles are utilized as a narrative device throughout the movie, it feels gimmicky at first – the split-screen framing is very reminiscent of Annie Hall and 500 Days of Summer – but ultimately works due to Martin’s commitment to using them throughout the film. I thought the technique was highly unoriginal at first, but left the theater thinking it was one of the most creative aspects of the film.
Anyways, life is very hard for Dean, a thirty-something hipster that, unless his first cartoon book made A LOT of money, appears to financially rely on his father, who lives in the Upper East Side. Regardless, losing a mother and ending an engagement are both challenging roadblocks to navigate no matter how much money you have. And honestly, Dean is a pretty likeable dude. You wouldn’t think it though, as nearly every drawing he comes up with features the Grim Reaper and themes of death in some allegorical sense. The melancholy intensifies when Dean learns that his father plans on selling his childhood home. Desperate to avoid a mature discussion, Dean flees to Los Angeles for a meeting with a creative agency, even though he has no intention of working for the company.
As he predicted, the meeting is a disaster, along with nearly every other experience during his time in LA. But something good does come of the trip. Dean meets Nicky (Gillian Jacobs) at a party and instantly falls in love, so much so that he hops off his returning flight to New York at the drop of a hat when Nicky invites him to a beach outing. Standard indie-rom events ensue and Dean eventually gets his life back on track.
Dean (the film) is a little -- no -- significantly been-there-done-that. It borrows from the all the greats, and at times does little to tweak the formula in a unique manner. It can feel like cheating, but Martin genuinely is a funny guy and redeems himself with some clever tricks (most notably the doodle storytelling). The way Dean handles the theme of grieving is the film’s strongest trait and for that, maybe the film was worthy of winning Tribeca’s top prize.
Dean will certainly divide critics (including this one, I veered back and forth from loving and hating it throughout the screening). But for a first-time filmmaker, it’s solid work that should convince studios of Martin’s prowess as a filmmaker. It’s no 500 Days of Summer , but Dean will definitely resonate with the younger generation. But for those who consider Annie Hall or When Harry Met Sally the quintessential classics, Dean may seriously rub them the wrong way. Only time will tell. With a major film festival award in the books, Dean is almost guaranteed to book a theatrical run.
Stay tuned to iDigitalTimes for continuing coverage of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
