Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Jeff Baena
Starring: Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Alessandro Nivola, Molly Shannon, Lil Rel Howery, Tim Heidecker, Ben Sinclair
With Spin Me Round, writer/director Jeff Baena reteams with his regular
collaborators Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza for a
knockabout comedy that plays like
Manhattan Murder Mystery made by a fan of Italian
exploitation cinema.
Brie, who co-writes, plays Amber, the manager of a California branch of
Tuscan Grove, a chain of restaurants that purports to bring the Italian
dining experience to hungry Americans. Never having left the US, Amber
is thrilled when she's selected to join several other branch managers on
a trip to the company's HQ in Italy.
Once Amber arrives, she immediately gets swept up in her perceived
romance of Europe and ignores some obvious warning signs like how a
Tuscan Grove lackey insists on taking his guests' passports away until
the trip is over. Like any of these corporate getaways, the attendees
are forced to adhere to a rigid roster of activities, most of which see
them stuck in the dull surrounds of the company offices with little
chance to see what Italy has to offer.
That changes when the company's owner, the handsome Nick Martucci (Alessandro Nivola), pays a visit to his guests and is immediately stricken by Amber.
Invited for a day on his yacht, Amber is instantly seduced. Once again,
she overlooks some red flags, like how Nick constantly talks about his
dead sister and how his assistant, Kat (Plaza), makes Amber swear not to
mention her tryst with Nick to anyone else.
Spin Me Round begins in familiar American rom-com
territory, with Brie, Plaza and a supporting cast of familiar comic
faces all providing some minor laughs. It's when the mystery element
kicks in that Baena's film takes a more interesting turn. With a score
by the great Pino Donaggio (perhaps his best in many a year) that
recalls the '70s lounge craze and the use of tracks by Goblin and The
Alan Parsons Project, a distinct giallo vibe begins to form around the
edges of the comedy, leading to a madcap climax involving masked
swingers and rampaging wild boars.
As is usually the case with such mainstream American comedies, some of
the improv numbers are stretched thin and the supporting cast are at
times a little too wacky in comparison with the film's leads. Brie,
Plaza and Nivola are all on fine form, and the film really comes alive
in a sequence that sees Plaza's Kat abduct Brie's Amber for a night on
the town. For 10 minutes the movie morphs into an energetic lesbian
cousin of
Call Me by Your Name, but Plaza practically disappears from the narrative immediately
after, and her absence is severely felt.
