I didn’t see Don’t Think Twice in the theaters for two reasons. First, I don’t think that I like dramas about comedians. I vaguely remember not liking Punchline starring Tom Hanks and Sally Fields and deeming the genre more depressing than a German black and white art house film. Second, after seeing Keanu, I’m feeling a little more reluctant to grab my wallet for Keegan-Michael Key. My instincts were perfect and completely subjective. I can also understand why people enjoyed Don’t Think Twice, particularly people who are part of the show business community, specifically comedians in improv. I am just not one of them.
Don’t Think Twice is an ensemble film about a group of friends/coworkers in an improv group that has reached a crisis point. They are about to be evicted from the black box theater and cannot afford another space so this is possibly the last stage that they have to get noticed by a Saturday Night Live like talent scout. A member of the group gets picked, and the rest of the group realizes that they have to hustle or face facts that they will never make it. There is one eerie moment when one of the characters eluded to the Trump JFK dynamic that I noticed being implicitly addressed through contrast in films like Jackie and Hidden Figures.
Don’t Think Twice’s story excellently addresses numerous adult themes, and I don’t mean sexual. First, once there is no common ground to gather like a campus or an office, can the relationship last? If the answer is no, it can feel like a failure or a betrayal instead of a reflection that it lasted for as long as it was supposed to last. Second, when you realize that sometimes you are competing with people you love, things can turn ugly and feel like a betrayal, which is antithetical to the relationship, but can the relationship be preserved? Third, what if you are failure because you lack the skill, luck of circumstance or desire? How do you move forward after admitting that you are a failure? Finally, what happens when only one of you makes it? It can still be lonely and frightening for the one who seems successful. Will the rest of the group use that person as a way to vent frustrations over rejection from the establishment?
While I think that Don’t Think Twice was incredibly textured in its approach to personal and relationship turning points while not giving into cut and dried ideas of who is right and wrong, it inadvertently felt like the negative liberal side of 45’s America. Don’t Think Twice may actually be based on the lives of the actors in it, but it still felt weird that
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the black guy is depicted as the one who does not really understand the improv rules, is a fame whore, gets chosen and explicitly, but nicely, called out for being slightly racist (for more on this phenomenon, read my review on Concussion). The narrative basically says that the less talented black guy is always going to get the job over a qualified white guy, and he has a right to be angry instead of the black guy is conventionally funny and younger so he got the slot. I know that the desperation is because it was possibly the last chance, but did the group, particularly the teacher, show similar hostility to the other (white) guys who beat him for a slot. No, otherwise there would be a movie. Don’t Think Twice inadvertently revealed the racist undertones of liberal white urbane America, and I live it so I really was not in the mood to watch a movie about it on a Friday night.