Review: Fool's Paradise (2023)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia may have made Charlie Day a household name, but his feature directorial debut feels less like a comedy that will resonate with general audiences and more like a small, personal story that's crafted with heart and whimsy. One can't help but suspect that the working title could have been How To Keep Your Soul In Hollywood, as most of the tale feels like a slightly-fictionalized account of real experiences and behaviors that the writer/director has observed during his show business travels. For a movie that boasts a cast of high-profile actors, Fool's Paradise is remarkably uncommercial. The thing that will keep most viewers away is the thing that I appreciate most: the movie is so inside-baseball that it simply won't resonate with Day's core audience who wants to see the comedian play the hyperactive, obnoxious character that we've come to expect. Day goes so far in the opposite direction that non-cinephiles are likely to ...