LEMON Review by The Curvy Film Critic

From the moment when you see Isaac (Brett Gelman) taking a sniff of his private parts, you know that Lemon is gong to be a special kind of ride.

A quirky comedy focused on struggling actor Isaac, his life goes through a re-identification period after his blind girlfriend (Judy Greer) leaves him after 10 years.   A luck would have it, Isaac is also a struggling actor and in the unique position of staging a production of The Seagull where multiple rehearsals are given a birds-eye lens with the leading lady and man  (Gillian Jacobs and Michael Cera).  These scenes are  hilariously dark, yet with a small kernel of truth at the surface.  In addition, whenever Isaac says  he has to travel for work you never see his occupation as an actor or director coming.  This provides for many interesting, yet hysterical plot twist throughout Lemon.

Directed by Panamanian-born Janicza Bravo, style might be described as absurdist theatre merged with an avant-garde SNL merged with a very off the cuff HBO or Amazon Prime sitcom.  Her juxtaposition of the camera in relation to its subjects is absolutely breathtakingly creative and fascinating to watch.

Cameos are abundant and the most brilliantly played one is a monologue by David Paymer centered around being the best you can be is comedy gold at best.  But, my favorite moment is  the ” a million matzo balls song” , which is a crazy twist on the bar favorite “bottles of beer.”

Throughout it all at the heart of Lemon, Isaac learns what it truly is to make lemons into lemonade.  Produced by Magnolia Pictures, Lemon opens in theaters on August 18th