Notice to Quit
Directed by Simon Hacker
Notice to Quit is the sort of breezy comedy George Segal used to make, reminiscent of Blume in Love or Bye Bye Braverman. In fact, Michael Zegen, who plays the protagonist of this one, resembles Mr. Segal. He has a similar affable Everyman quality about him.
Andy Singer (Mr. Zegen) is an aspiring actor making ends meet—barely—as an apartment broker in Manhattan. His picture is displayed around the city as the model in an often-defaced subway poster for toothpaste. He's divorced and has visitation with but not custody of his precocious 10-year-old daughter Anna, played winningly by Kasey Bella Suarez. Andy's got Anna for the day, as he hustles apartment hunters while stripping AC units from units and selling them to junkman/gangster played by Michael Angelo Covino.
Andy and Anna traverse the city on foot and by subway. Schemes are hatched (one involves a cockroach in a hamburger), quirky characters appear and disappear, and Andy ends up pretty much as he began. His wife, played by Isabel Arraiza, loves him but has moved on; while covertly sizing up his ex's new squeeze, Andy muses to Anna, "Your mother's impressed too easily. I told her that when we got together." And Andy's still left lugging around a discarded AC unit like an albatross.
That's about as much of an arc as Notice to Quit manages. It's engaging but thin. It plays more like a TV pilot than a freestanding movie, devoid of conflict other than Andy's ongoing struggles with himself. The script is sharp and witty, full of bon mots. Michael Zegen played the husband in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and this is his first lead role. Robert Klein as Andy's artist dad is a welcome surprise. Simon Hacker's direction is loose, and most of the camerawork is handheld. Notice to Quit has that obligatory scene of its protagonist running through New York's city streets to an ecstatic score supplied here by music maestro Jack Antonoff.
Another Happy Day
Directed by Nora Fiffer
Actor/comedian Lauren Lapkus is tall and thin, with big eyes and deep dimples when she smiles. Her demeanor is made for comedy, and she's known for her work in Netflix's Orange is the New Black and HBO's Crashing. She's often relegated to the role of sidekick, but in Another Happy Day, she gets to stretch out and show her drama chops.
Ms. Lapkus plays Joanna, a new mother who is post-partum-y. She rarely sleeps, and when she does, she has night terrors. She cries. She hallucinates, even asking the Amazon delivery guy if he's real. Her nipples bleed from breastfeeding. Babies are harder work than she imagined, and her work as an artist is suffering. Her partner Lucien is supportive but busy as the breadwinner.
Joanna is stressed and lonely, far from family. Except, as her mother points out on the phone, for Miriam, her "dad's brother Leonard's ex-wife." Miriam's in the same city; why not visit her if you need a dose of family?
Miriam lives alone in an apartment cluttered with books and art. She's a diva, an actress á la Norma Desmond, ready for her close-up. She's acerbic and nasty to Joanna. "You came across town for me to hold your baby?" she asks, incredulous. "No," replies Joanna, "I came across town for you to hold me." "What?" "I'm kidding. Sort of."
Another Happy Day is written and directed by Nora Fiffer, whose approach is schematic: her shots are carefully composed, and many are held long, making the most of interesting characters in the frame. It takes its time, and the patience pays off. Ms. Fiffer appears in the film as Wendy, Joanna's friend, who wants a baby but is having difficulty conceiving.
Another Happy Day is poignant and engrossing. The oil-and-water dynamic of Ms. Lapkus and Marilyn Dodds Frank as Miriam is the foundation of the film. Carrie Coon makes a too-brief appearance as Joanna's employer and is an executive producer. Jean Elie plays husband Lucien as a firm but personable presence: he has great expectations of Joanna, even if she doesn't. Their relationship is knowingly passive-aggressive: a playful game of name-calling turns caustic and wounding.
Scenes like Joanna's cynicism at a baby shower and her bonding with Miriam, breaking down walls, are witty and authentic. Ms. Fiffer is going for realism, but Another Happy Day's catharsis is abrupt and not satisfying as the lead-up: its Goodbye Girl premise goes soggy as gnarly old Miriam bends too quickly.
Still, Another Happy Day is touching. Lucien's belief in marriage is challenged by the realities of tending to a baby. Miriam gets to shine in a spirited audition. But poor Joanna, when asked, "What did you expect?" about motherhood, replies, "That we'd be happier."