July 14, 2017 1 min to read

The Big Sick

There's nothing groundbreaking about this movie, but it's heartfelt and hilarious.

by Zach Saul

The Big Sick is probably the funniest movie I’ve seen in several years. I know it’s going to get labeled as a “rom-com”, but I was laughing out loud for all 124 minutes of it. I had my doubts before seeing it that Kumail Nanjiani (The Pakistani guy from Silicon Valley) could carry a movie for 90 minutes, but he demonstrated an impressive emotional range. Impressive as he was, a friend and I agreed that the real star of the movie was Zoe Kazan, who seems destined to claim the “girl next door” throne should she so choose. We both left the theatre disappointed her illness kept her out of about a third of the film. Thankfully a delightfully deadpan Ray Romano and the spunky Holly Hunter carried the Big Sick through Kazan’s absence. There’s nothing groundbreaking about this movie, but it’s heartfelt, hilarious, and every time you can feel an overly cliched moment approaching it sidesteps it in a very interesting way.

The Good: The Big Sick is really good at creating characters you want to root for. Even Kumail’s overly rigid Pakistani parents are characters you ultimately grow fond of and root for near the end. Zoe Kazan is a star, and Ray Romano is, in my humble opinion one of the best, and funniest supporting actors in comedy right now.

The Bad: As has become a tradition for Judd Apatow produced movies - this film is probably 20 minutes too long, and if we’re being honest it still contains one or two of the standard cringe-worthy rom-com cliches.