Synopsis

If Sarah Silverman and Sam Kinison conceived a love child, it might look something like Nina Geld (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the vulgar, brutally outspoken feminist comedian whose expositorily autobiographical approach to standup is offset by a self-destructive streak that threatens to bottleneck her road to mainstream success. Winstead is up for the challenge, stepping out of the shadows to give a performance that’s so unfettered and emotionally raw, Academy voters are bound to overlook it. Nina might have been a masterpiece had the #MeToo movement not dictated the outcome of the film. Great comics don’t preach. They possess within them the ability to beautify through laughter even life’s most disagreeable moments. Everything that first time writer-director Eva Vives led us to believe about the character is shattered by an ugly eleventh hour reversal that contradicts all that came before. Skip Nina’s final set and make up your own punch line.

— Scott Marks

Length: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated: R

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