Free Streaming Movie Review: I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

Out of curiosity and a love (obsession perhaps?) for HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm I decided to watch Jeff Garlin's film I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With. Garlin writes, directs, stars and produces the 80 minute Weinstein Company release and he truly does a nice job. Jeff Garlin plays James Aaron a 39 year old, overweight, struggling actor who lives at home with his mother. The film takes place in Chicago and it lets you know this on many levels, Aaron parks his car near Wrigley Field so he can compulsively eat when something depresses him or sets him back, he's also a seasoned performer at the famed Second City Improv and alas there is no absence of Chicago taxi cabs.

The film is an homage to Paddy Chayefsky's 1955 film Marty (starring Ernest Borgnine). There are multiple references to the Oscar winning picture as there are many clear parallels between the character of Marty and that of Garlin's character. Also, James Aaron learns about halfway through the film that a local production company is producing a remake of Marty. To Aaron's demise he's not even allowed to audition for it and instead the casting people want to market the remake to a younger audience and to add insult to injury a boyish Aaron Carter is cast as the lead instead. As James Aaron's life is slowly going down the toilet he meets a semi-psychotic ice-cream parlor employee named Beth (Sarah Silverman) and is smitten by her charming yet quasi-frightening demeanor. The titular line arises as the two are strolling through a park watching a young couple and they both decide "they each want someone to eat cheese with". The cast is besieged with cameos by an array of actors (many recognizable from Curb Your Enthusiasm) like Dan Castalleneta, Bonnie Hunt, Richard Kind and Amy Sedaris. What Jeff Garlin did here was basically make a simple, sleek, intriguing art film that just makes you feel at ease. There are no big underlying themes to ponder, no real moral message, just an endearing film about a guy trying to better himself. If you have an hour and a half, give it a shot.