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Song of Back and Neck
In the American version of “The Office,” Paul Lieberstein played Toby Flenderson, the world’s least competent HR director, so ineffectual he actually wound up bearing the brunt of his colleagues’ workplace harassment. Like a human Eeyore, or the sad-sack equivalent of a giant shrug, the actor made for an amusing contribution to a well-rounded ensemble, although it’s hard to imagine Lieberstein carrying his own movie. Sure enough, even when serving as writer-director, as he does in “Song of Back and Neck,” the guy frequently seems like the least interesting character on-screen (there are entire scenes where he literally just lies there while funnier actors steal the show).
If this were Tom Cruise we were talking about, that would be a crippling flaw, but Lieberstein designs his eccentric little debut along the lines of “Being John Malkovich,” in which John Cusack and Cameron Diaz had their star power stripped away through dumpy wardrobe and bad wigs until they came off seeming like characters most of us might overlook in the real world. Lieberstein could have cast himself as a self-aggrandizing romantic lead, the way Woody Allen nearly always does, but instead he plays Fred Trolleycar, the kind of guy voted “least likely to succeed” by his high school peers, who grew up to be a middle-aged paralegal at his father’s law firm — a cushy nepotistic job from which he can’t be fired, though it comes with the humiliation of watching ponytailed jerks like Atkins (Clark Duke) make partner while he grabs coffee for the clients.
Views: 543
Director: Paul Lieberstein
Actors: Brian d'Arcy James, Clark Duke, Paul Feig, Paul Lieberstein, Robert Pine, Rosemarie DeWitt
Country: USA
