I USED TO BE FUNNY -- Rachel Sennott is Powerful as a Stand-Up Comedian Grappling with PTSD

Review by Camden Ferrell

Ally Pankiw is no stranger to the director’s chair, previously working on Black Mirror and The Great. Her debut feature, I Used to Be Funny, had its premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival and is set for theatrical release this week. This is a dark dramedy that can sometimes have trouble juggling its tones and themes but is heavily redeemed by a standout lead performance and strong emotional maturity.
 
Sam is an aspiring stand-up comic who battles with her daily struggles with PTSD. Emotions and memories come to the surface as she debates whether or not to join in the search for a missing girl, a teenager who she used to nanny. Pankiw bounces between past and present in this emotional journey that is equal parts unique and heartbreakingly universal.
 
Pankiw immediately demonstrates a natural ability to write realistic dialogue. She writes conversations that gently toe the line between realism and cinematic. It doesn’t feel improvised but still also doesn’t feel heavily scripted and monitored. It’s a simple yet effective way for her to establish her characters and their personalities and sorrows. However, one of the flaws is that amidst her great dialogue, there seems to be the occasional scene that just doesn’t flow as well as other scenes and ruins the mojo she had been building up.

The most remarkable aspect of this movie is its lead performance. This movie almost lives and dies by its lead. Rachel Sennott has been one of the biggest up and coming actresses in recent years, and this is another great film under her belt. Despite the heavy thematic material and intense scenes, she still manages to have an undeniably lively energy throughout the movie. She is able to jump between painful drama and natural comedy in a way that I think few actresses could pull off as well as her. If you needed anymore reason to see how Sennott is something special, this is it.
 
One thing about this movie that I truly admire is its maturity. Pankiw takes themes of trauma and recovery and truly makes it her own. She has a firm grasp on the realities of these difficult issues, and she shapes it in a way that is expressive yet not exploitative in the slightest. This isn’t a tale of revenge or screeching catharsis; it’s a mature story about healing and the recovery of what one loses in the wake of trauma. Even when the movie has a hard time juggling its comedy and drama due to the stark contrast in scenes, Pankiw’s vision makes up for it more times than not.
 
I Used to Be Funny is yet another showcase for the extremely talented Rachel Sennott, but it’s also an emotional feature debut for Ally Pankiw. Despite the flaws it has, this movie has made me incredibly excited to see what Pankiw does next, and it does establish her as a unique and strong voice in the indie movie scene.
 
I Used to Be Funny is in theaters June 7.
 
Rating: 3.5/5