''Peep World'' is a 2010 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by Barry W. Blaustein and starring an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

, including

Ron Rifkin Ron Rifkin (born Saul M. Rifkin; October 31, 1939) is an American actor best known for his roles as Arvin Sloane on the spy drama ''Alias'', Saul Holden on the drama '' Brothers & Sisters'', and District Attorney Ellis Loew in ''L.A. Confidentia ...

Lesley Ann Warren Lesley Ann Warren (born August 16, 1946) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in 1963, aged 17, in '' 110 in the Shade''. In 1965 she received wide recognition for playing the title role in the television musical prod ...

Ben Schwartz Benjamin Schwartz (born September 15, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. He has guest starred as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on the NBC sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'' and Clyde Oberholt on the Showtime series ''House of Lies''; voiced Randy C ...

Michael C. Hall Michael Carlyle Hall (born February 1, 1971) is an American actor and singer best known for his roles as Dexter Morgan, the titular character in the Showtime series ''Dexter,'' and David Fisher in the HBO drama series '' Six Feet Under.'' Thes ...

Sarah Silverman Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced ''The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...

Rainn Wilson Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', for which he earned three consecutive Emm ...

Kate Mara Kate Rooney Mara ( ; born February 27, 1983) is an American actress. She is known for work in television, playing reporter Zoe Barnes in the Netflix political drama ''House of Cards'' (2013–2014; 2016), computer analyst Shari Rothenberg in t ...

Judy Greer Judith Therese Evans (born July 20, 1975), known professionally as Judy Greer, is an American actress. She is primarily known as a character actress, who has appeared in a wide variety of films. She first rose to prominence in a variety of suppor ...

Stephen Tobolowsky Stephen Harold Tobolowsky (born May 30, 1951) is an American character actor. He is known for film roles such as insurance agent Ned Ryerson in ''Groundhog Day'' and amnesiac Sammy Jankis in '' Memento'', as well as such television characters as ...

Taraji P. Henson Taraji Penda Henson ( ; born September 11, 1970) is an American actress. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in '' Baby Boy'' (2001). Sh ...

, and

Alicia Witt Alicia Roanne Witt (born August 21, 1975) is an American actress, singer and pianist. She first came to fame as a child actress after being discovered by David Lynch, who cast her in '' Dune'' (1984) and ''Twin Peaks'' (1990). Witt had a critic ...

. The story revolves around the Meyerwitz family causing trouble to each other after the youngest member reveals each other's secrets in his novel. It premiered at the

2010 Toronto International Film Festival The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 19, 2010. The opening night gala presented '' Score: A Hockey Musical'', a Canadian comedy-drama musical film. '' La ...

on September 15, 2010, and was theatrically released by

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

on March 25, 2011. ''Peep World'' garnered a negative reception from critics over its cliché-ridden script and the cast portraying broad caricatures.

Plot

At a dinner celebrating the 70th birthday of their father Henry Meyerwitz, tensions among the four Meyerwitz siblings explode thanks to the success of the youngest son, Nathan, whose new novel ''Peep World'' is a thinly veiled portrait of the family. The best-selling expose reveals the oldest, "responsible" son, Jack, as a porn addict, the daughter, Cheri, as a catty drama queen, and the third son, Joel, as a living disaster with a loony plan to change his life. The story takes place over the course of a single day. Jack, a struggling architect, is stressed about the well-being of his wife and unborn son. Cheri, an actress, wants to sue Nathan for damages since she is unable to get work. Joel, an incompetent divorce lawyer, juggles mounting financial troubles while maintaining a relationship with his client Mary. Nathan finds little happiness with his success due to the ongoing turmoil. Jack's pregnant wife Laura discovers him masturbating in an adult video store. Cheri continues to rant about the book and upcoming movie, but decides to attend the dinner with her religious friend Ephraim. Joel misses Mary's divorce hearing. After being given a shot for premature ejaculation issues, Nathan causes a scene during his book signing with an unwanted erection. After his publicist Meg helps him "relieve" his problem, she reluctantly accompanies him to his father's birthday dinner. The four siblings meet at the restaurant along with their mother Marilyn. Everyone is surprised when their father introduces his new girlfriend Amy, who is not only half his age, but also the actress playing Cheri in the film adaptation of the book. The family quarrels during dinner. Henry deems his children ungrateful and reveals that Amy is pregnant. Marilyn claims the children always blame someone else for their problems. The dinner ends abruptly when Henry chokes on a piece of food. Jack performs

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore sponta ...

, and the family rushes him to the hospital. While waiting, Cheri asks, "What do we do if he dies?" Jack replies, "We'll live." A doctor appears to give the family news. A narrator then explains that Henry finally got his family together, though he almost died for that to occur.

Cast

Lewis Black Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, or any other cultural trends. He hosted the Comedy Central series ''Lewis ...

as The Narrator *

as Henry Meyerwitz *

as Marilyn Meyerwitz *

as Nathan Meyerwitz *

as Jack Meyerwitz *

as Cheri Meyerwitz *

as Joel Meyerwitz *

as Meg *

as Laura *

as Ephraim *

as Mary *

as Amy Harrison * David Packer as Eli *

Octavia Spencer Octavia Lenora Spencer (born May 25, 1970) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Critics' Choice Awards and three Screen Actors Gu ...

as Alison *

Geoffrey Arend Geoffrey Rashid Arend (born February 28, 1978) is an American film, television, voice and theater actor. He is best known for his role as Ethan Gross on the ABC drama series ''Body of Proof'', Matt Mahoney on the CBS political drama series '' M ...

as Dr. Novak *

Guillermo Diaz Guillermo Diaz may refer to: * Guillermo Díaz (footballer, born 1926), Chilean footballer * Guillermo Díaz (footballer, born 1930) (1930–1997), Chilean footballer * Guillermo Díaz (wrestler) (born 1964), Mexican Olympic wrestler *Guillermo Dí ...

as Jesus * Troian Avery Bellisario as Film Set P.A. *

Deborah Pratt Deborah M. Pratt is an American actress, writer, and television producer. Early life Pratt was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Geraldine (''née'' Bryant) and Col. Bertram Roberson Pratt, a vice president of Pullman Heritag ...

as Cassandra Williamson *Leslie Speight as Wizdom * Raja Fenske as Rajeev

Release

Box office

''Peep World'' premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

(TIFF) on September 15, 2010.

bought the film's distribution rights after its premiere at TIFF, released it on

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

on February 9, 2011, and gave it a limited release on March 25. On its opening weekend, the film grossed $6,702 from three theatres, averaging $2,234 per theater and ranking number 84 at the box office. The film earned a total gross of $14,351 in under three weeks of release, with a widest release of five theatres.

Critical reception

''Peep World'' received negative reviews from critics. It holds a approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on reviews, with an average score of . On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film holds a weighted score of 27 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Jesse Cataldo of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' criticized the film for telling predictable storylines with unlikable characters that try to be sympathized in a last act redemption, concluding that: "By then, ''Peep World'' has spent so much time abusing and reviling its characters that it's impossible to see them as anything but useless." Sheri Linden of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' said the script falters with "excruciating" humor and affection among the characters "feeling false than touching".

Lou Lumenick Louis J. Lumenick (born September 11, 1949) is an American film critic. He was the chief film critic and film editor for the ''New York Post'' where he reviewed films from 1999 until his retirement in 2016. He is currently researching the histor ...

of the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' felt the film "strands a good cast in a sea of stereotypes and clichés" and only has "a few laughs sprinkled over its abbreviated running time as it limps to a predictable conclusion." Christopher Bell from ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

'' found it "devoid of what makes comedy films work," criticizing the unoriginal humor being delivered by the cast and director Blaustein for poorly handling the multiple storylines like he's working on a "mediocre television pilot."

Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' praised the performances of Wilson, Henson, Hall and Greer for being the most human in the cast, saying they "help to distract you from the flat jokes, ethnic clichés and formulaic relationships noisily vying for your attention," but found the rest of the film generic, calling it " family circus of dysfunction that's so familiar you may feel tempted to place bets on how everything will shake out." Elizabeth Weitzman of the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' said that the cast managed to raise the script, highlighting both Greer and Silverman for giving the most genuine dramatic portrayals of their characters.

Home media

''Peep World'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 19, 2011.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peep World 2010 comedy-drama films 2010 independent films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American comedy-drama films American independent films Films about dysfunctional families Films about writers Films directed by Barry W. Blaustein Films produced by Keith Calder Films set in Los Angeles