Review of Sleeping with Other People (2015) by Manny C — 02 Oct 2015

You can think of it as 'When Harry Met Sally...' with assholes, or at least that's how writer-director Leslye Headland would suggest you do, but that's a description that sells her film short. Sleeping With Other People hits a sweet spot of heart and humor because the lovers at its center spit venom at romcom cliches. It may not be as dark and biting as Headland's debut feature Bacherlorette, but it does give us two terrific assholes worth rooting for.

That would be Jake (Jason Sudeikis) and Lainey (Alison Brie), a girl he de-virginized in 2002 when they were students at Columbia. They reunite during rehab sessions for sex addicts. Jake is an unabashed pussy hound and Lainey is still periodically hooking up with a college cad (Adam Scott), who is now an Ob-Gyn engaged to someone else. So Jake and Lainey decide to become friends, without the benefits.

All of this would crumble if Headland wasn't so skilled at keeping things popping, particularly when Jake shows Lainey how to masturbate using a tea jar. Even when the laughs stumble, the actors never lose their A-games. Sudeikis, of Saturday Night Live fame, grabs his best role yet, revealing a capacity for unexpected feeling as well as rip-roaring fun, and Brie, so wonderful on Community and Mad Men, is a comic wonder, cracking you up at a kindergarten dance (she's a teacher) high on molly, or just breaking your heart. This movie hits you. Hard.