What is Girlfriend’s Day? An extended Mr. Show sketch built around a single joke? A genuine film noir with a goofy premise? Or evidence that Netflix will throw money at literally anything in an attempt to appeal to every single niche on the planet?
Whatever it is, Girlfriend’s Day is unlike anything else released this year. Bob Odenkirk stars as a once-great greeting card writer who finds himself embroiled in a complex web of lies and murder as everyone in the greeting card industry rushes to create the perfect card for a brand-new holiday.
It’s an odd movie, made even odder by the fact that it is built on a single joke: greeting card writers being treated like rock stars, while the actual work they produce is generic, basic sentiment. The movie plays its noir trappings completely straight. Odenkirk is your hard-boiled hero; Amber Tamblyn is your femme fatale. Directed by Michael Stephenson (the kid from Troll 2!) and featuring appearances from a wide variety of actors like Rich Sommer, Stacy Keach, Andy Richter, and Natasha Lyonne, Girlfriend’s Day has the makings of a new cult classic.
At least, if it can find an audience. Like a lot of their stuff, Netflix threw money at this thing and then basically buried it. So don’t sleep on this! It’s weird and it’s funny and it’s only 70 minutes, just enough time to end before the joke wears out its welcome. It’s available to stream right now, along with fifty thousand other high-pedigree originals released this year, on Netflix.
Availability: Netflix
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