Somebody Up There Likes Me (2013)

Not to be confused with the Rocky Graziano bio-pic of the mid 50's staring Paul Newman, this 'Somebody Up There Likes Me' is another one of those Bob Byington films I've been indulging in lately. Staring Jess Wexler and such Byington regulars as Keith Poulson and Nick Offerman, the film is told in a series of flash forwards at five year intervals from the 1990's into the near feature. It focuses on Max (Poulson) who at the beginning of the film is a waiter at a steakhouse whose marriage has just ended in divorce. Over the course of the film Max gets married again, has a kid, gets rich, has an affair, gets divorced, loses his money, starts business, becomes a grandfather, gets rich again, reconnects with his estranged son, and somehow never seems to age while the other characters do, which of course is a set up to the final joke of the film. The plot is not so much important as the shear Byingotnness of the proceedings, if you like dry, awkward, surreal, sometimes inappropriate humor and Nick Offerman, I would recommend this, and practically any other Bob Byington directed feature. ***