“I’m Reed Fish” (2006) is a weird combination of a personal cheapie with a stellar, marketable cast of actors. A basic sans-serif font introduces the title and cast. Yet Zackary Adler’s direction and the performances – especially by “Undeclared’s” Jay Baruchel in the title role – flow like a mainstream charmer.
Personal to the storyteller
I watched this for Alexis Bledel (“Gilmore Girls”), finding it by scrolling through a Roku search. But in the closing credits, I learned that Reed Fish is the screenwriter. This is his semi-autobiographical coming-of-age Hollywood calling card.
It’s Fish’s only IMDb credit, so either things haven’t worked out for him, he found a different career, or he only had one movie in him. If the latter is the case, at least it’s a watchable, likable one.
To celebrate the 40th birthday of “Gilmore Girls’ ” Alexis Bledel, this month Reviews from My Couch is looking back at five of her movies that we haven’t previously reviewed.
“I’m Reed Fish” (2006)
Director: Zackary Adler
Writers: Reed Fish (story, screenplay); Zackary Adler, Peter Alwazzan, Rhett Wickham (story)
Stars: Jay Baruchel, Alexis Bledel, Schuyler Fisk
As Reed (Baruchel) hosts his local-hit radio show in Mud Meadows (in California, I think) and prepares to marry Kate (Bledel) while pining after Jill (Schuyler Fisk, “Orange County”), the small-town quirkiness is of a piece with “Gilmore Girls,” “Everwood,” “Ed,” etc.
Quirky towns were a thing in the early Aughts, but “IRF” doesn’t slather it on too thick. The unlikely case of a popular morning show hosted by a recent high school grad (and regular shots of an old radio) pleasantly paints Mud Meadows as a place out of time.
Small-town love triangle
But mostly the film is realistic, and mostly it’s concerned with Reed’s love problems. Baruchel’s natural likability is crucial, because no viewer is going to feel too bad for Reed’s conundrum of choosing between cute and loving Kate and cute and talented Jill. (Fisk is a singer, and she performs a wonderful talent-show number at mid-film.)
“IRF’s” style of humor – broadly, B-grade Apatowisms – isn’t gut-busting, but nor is it groan-worthy. It’s thoroughly pleasant, whether Reed is riffing with his best pal (Victor Rasuk), being berated for his tardiness by his coworker (Katey Sagal of “Futurama”), or doing oddball local TV pieces about zorses and oversized carrots.
The love triangle is grounded, as all three are from Mud Meadows. The Kate-vs.-Jill choice isn’t between two wildly different types of gals. Reed just has the misfortune of loving both of them.
While the romance moments are standard (albeit often cute), it’s quite an accomplishment when Reed manages to get both Kate and Jill to storm out on him in the same scene.
An odd framing mechanism (Spoilers)
(SPOILERS FOLLOW.)
“IRF” is meta by the very fact that the real Fish is writing about himself. But it adds another layer of meta with a framing mechanism at mid-film. The audio goes silent and we pull out to learn we’ve been watching a film within a film.
To reference “Gilmore Girls” again, it’s like “A Film by Kirk,” but more professional and accessible.
Shiri Appleby (“Roswell”) is on hand as one of the girls actually hurt by Reed. I assumed (and I assume I was supposed to assume) she was Kate, but later we learn she’s Jill.
At any rate, while this device is surprising, it doesn’t add much. In fact, it harms the film a little, because the film-within-the-film (which, let’s face it, is really the actual film, because it takes up 98 percent of the run time) is presented like any old film.
There’s no sense that it’s a student project made with novice actors. Except for one gag. In the framing mechanism, we learn that Andrew (D.J. Qualls) tended to look at the camera. So a bit later, he does indeed do that.
But “IRF” doesn’t lean into the comedic opportunities of the device. While I normally embrace any excuse to see Appleby, I don’t know what the point of the framing device is if the “real world” scenes also feature attractive Hollywood actors. Plus, we’re robbed of a final scene with Baruchel and Fisk, who have great chemistry.
Maybe Fish was desperate for his film to stand out so he added this quirk late in the process. He need not have tried so hard. As a lightly funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story played out by talented actors, “I’m Reed Fish” was already a catch.