Spin Me Round is the newest film from Jeff Baena (director of Life After Beth, co-writer of I Heart Huckabees). It was also co-written by Alison Brie, who stars as Amber, a restaurant manager who wins a company trip to Italy, and fulfills the ‘innocent American girl goes abroad and finds scandalous but eternal love’ fantasy. Or so she thinks…
Jeff Baena ranks highly in my mind because his dialogue and overall writing are consistently funnier and higher-class than SNL fare, which is obnoxiously mass-appealing and almost unabashedly mediocre. Moreover, when he does use SNL actors (like Molly Shannon, who in a shocking twist is hilariously toxic in this film), he wrings fantastic performances out of them. Almost as if they’re talented actors who just need better material than SNL…
In any case, Spin Me Round is on par with his usual work. Some elements work better than others, like the scenes where everybody is in a single room, in character, delivering Baena’s lines with flawless comic timing (particularly Tim Heidecker, whose performance is a riot). But even Alison Brie’s arc through the intriguing yet mundane web of Italian romance is deeply amusing when contrasted with Pino Donaggio’s overly dramatic score. It may not be your typical summer spectacular, but it’s a fun diversion if you like well-written original comedies.
