Girlfriend's Day
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
This offbeat film begins with an 'industry-on-parade' type montage of the printing industry: presses, inks, hanging papers drying, etc. Then the film widens and tells us that this is a story about greeting cards and greeting card writers. After all, writing them is the 'ultimate challenge - novels are for people who can't edit themselves'. When top Valentine's Day card writer Ray (Bob Odenkirk) is fired by his boss, he is forced into menial work to pay the rent, Eventually he even has an indoor yard sale to raise the rent money. It is at this point the plot makes a major turn: the Mayor declares a new holiday: one for girlfriends and announces serious money for the greeting card best expressing feelings for a girlfriend. The movie then turns into a hard-boiled detective story complete with bad guys, hot dames, double crosses, crooked cops and what we've all come to expect from a 'Mickey Spillane'-type story. Greeting card writers hang out in a bar called 'Card Sharps', double-entendres galore come out of the mouths of characters, and other fun things happen. Ray eventually is seduced by Jill, the dame who becomes his muse and unblocks his writer's block allowing him to write the winning Girlfriend's Day card. As sappy music plays in the background a montage of people reading Ray's card is shown (a true 'Hallmark Moment'). The fun, quirky film ends with a voice-over from Ray: he isn't a professional greeting card writer anymore, he no longer sells his feelings, he saves them for someone special.

Review: 1 hour long short story.
I had no expectations and didn't look into the movie before I watched it.
I just put this on, knowing Bob Odenkirk was in it.I don't really understand why, but it seemed like the plot was intentionally nonsensical and simple.
It was a weird mix of very predictable and very confusing.
Like a greeting card, perhaps?I enjoy experimental movies just as well as popular ones, but after watching it, I can't help but feel like it should either have been shorter, or had more content.What I'm really trying to wrap more nicely than it feels, is that I think the writing felt unfinished.
Or perhaps the first sketch after a writer's block.
Yeah, that bad.
I think the only moral or interesting point brought up in the movie was the quote in the opening scene.Yet, I still enjoyed Bob's acting, but none of the characters really stood out to me in this one.
I guess most notable to me was Natasha Lyonne, playing her usual playful character and Steven Michael Quezada playing his usual dutiful and determined working-class character.
Amber Tamblyn had a few interesting moments as well - but it all felt very rushed and underdeveloped.I'll be very surprised if this will end up rated highly.
I think I might even have overrated it..
Off-kilter drama.
I knew nothing about this movie before turning it on, but assumed it would be a comedy, from the main few cast members.
Boy, was I wrong.
It has a little humor, but no big laughs.
It was a drama somewhere between The Big Lebowski and a sendup of a Hitchcock thriller, with a few moments that were almost out of a Wes Anderson film.
I'd recommend this if you like the quiet and surrealistic storytelling of Lebowski.
The story doesn't make much sense when viewed through the lens of realism, but should be viewed with a bit of whimsy.
Bob Odenkirk gives a reliably good performance, as we've come to expect from him after his more serious, introspective work on Better Call Saul, and the rest of the cast present a perfect landscape for his character.
This film might not be for everyone, but it's short enough (just over an hour) that it won't put you out much to give it a watch, and the action, while sometimes confusing, moves quickly enough that it keeps your attention from start to finish..
Sloppy, slapdash...
and I *loved* it..
Had all the elements of an Odenkirk production: It's a rollicking mash of slice-of-life, crushing failure, latent romance, and colorful character.Folks point out that the story is a bit confused...
and they're right.
There's a way of managing essential vs.
negligible detail in a story.
I suspect it can be rightfully and respectfully said that Odenkirk has a way of blurring that line; a way that some folks find off-putting and others find charming.
Personally, I find it charming.
You may not find it charming, so you've been warned.Girlfriend's Day is a labor of love.
Tune it in, hang with it, and it may pay off with the delight and warmth of a mystery greeting card, hovering preborn in the aethers, and whose message we may never know..
Quirky at Best.
This was a short fairly low budget picture that got made due to Bob Odenkirk and his name after Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
If we had to see the Los Angeles river flood channel (or whatever they call it) one more time I was going to scream.
The city must charge very little to shoot there at it was almost a character.
I found a few places to laugh but not enough to recommend this as a comedy.
It is an offbeat quirky picture with some nice scenes but nothing more.
The one standout performance was Amber Tamblyn as Jill..
A nice little absurdity.
Some will indulge the weirdness, others won't.
But if you bail you'll be missing out on a nice little absurdity.
It's not exactly laugh-out- loud funny, but it does have its moments, and the cast mostly seems to go along with the idea, playing it mostly as a deadpan film-noir parody.
If you think of it that way, it all might fall into place.
Odenkirk's world-weary greeting card writer frequenting a card-writer's bar is just a small example.
Again, the oddness will put off some people, which is understandable.
The narrative, if taken at face value is just as laughable as many other thrillers, but because it's being self-conscious, it has the charm of self-deprecating irony.
It can get self-indulgent with how much it falls into this area, and it really has to work to get over its Saturday-Night-Live style setting but I think that's part of the point -- and it does get over itself quite well.
And the fact that I'm in love with Amber Tamblyn has nothing to do with this positive review..
A quirky, subtle fun-bite.
Not for everyone admittedly, but rejecting it simply for the reason it is something off-beat and irregular is just a mistake.This 70 minutes long satiric comedy sketch gives one an askew glimpse into the greeting-card and holiday industry.Simple yet complex.
Movie lovers will find little echoes of some films and TV-shows mixed in this bit.
Most palpable influences I dare say were Enemy(Villeneuve), Punch-drunk Love, Dr. Strangelove, and for some oddly surprising reason some parts of Mulholland Dr.I found it to be filled with heart, brains and subtlety.Nothing serious, just a well written, very well acted and directed elongated sketch.
Some will be bored to tears, some others (like me) will be enjoying this one with an idiotic smile on their faces.
Watch and see for your self..
How a director can screw an entire movie.
The script, the actors, the production values here are excellent.There's just one thing that ruins it.The director.
Michael Paul Stephenson decided "I want this to be a slice of life movie", instead of a film noir movie.
He could have made this artistic and hilarious, bu the decided instead to screw the entire production over.
The guy just totally ruined what could have been a fantastic film.He's a dickhead.
Watch this film and try to imagine it much darker, much more stylized, and like an homage to the 1940s/1950s films of Fred McMurray, Humphrey Bogart.
Laurent Bacall and Ingrid Bergman.
SO much better..
SO much better..
a writer's movie.
So, you're still in bed at 1 p.m. composing comments on friends' FaceBook shares, eating the other half of a stevia-sweetened chocolate bar from the night before, and then you move on to Netflix to get further from reality--where you see the face of beloved Bob Odenkirk in a harmless sounding title: "Girlfriends Day".
You give it a look-see.
You don't turn from it in irritation or boredom--it's holding you with the inscrutable power of untapped human potential.
Every character looking at Odenkirk seems to be waiting for "something" to happen.
Then his landlord takes action.
And then I'm clapping for a brilliant moment, and barking out loud with laughter from my unused vocal chords at another moment.
I get comfortable.
I know that I, too, like Odenkirk's character, will write again.
This film is exquisite..
The Worst of Netflix.
Well, I didn't really have great expectations for this movie, but, even so, it was a total let down.
The plot is not just confusing, it's also unpolished, messy and BAD.
The 1h10 of the whole movie felt more like three or four hours for me.
Bob Odenkirk is a really good actor and, in fact, I really don't think any of the parts played in the movie (aside from Stacy Keach's) were poorly executed at all, but in the end, the script was just unsavable.
I can honestly say that 1 star is almost overrating it, and I wouldn't bear watching this film ever again.
I can't say I just don't recommend it, as I actually recommend that all of you just STAY AWAY from it..
Really liked it.
It's all been said - odd, quirky, very different.
Really enjoyed its eccentricity..
Short but sweet.
This is really short, almost to a degree where I was thinking if the running time indicates this to be a TV show.
It isn't, it's a feature length that just is way shorter than the 90 minutes we are used to.
And it's not a bad thing, quite the opposite.
Odenkirk is really something, the way he portrays the character of his ...
just amazing and really grabbing the attention of the viewer.Having said that, the script is as quirky as it can get.
You have quite a few actors you may know if you watch the odd movie or two (or a hundred).
Also some TV shows, like Mad Men. The humor is dry and awkward at times, which is something you must like otherwise you might have issues with the movie itself.
So you are warned or let's say prepared for what is ahead.
It's fun, it's short and it is entertaining.
I really had a good time, flaws and all..
About a writer, most a poet!.
At least it tried to be something fresh.
The Netflix's experimental films giving great opportunities for small directors and stars.
Not all the flicks clicks, but different than what we usually get from other production houses.
So that's how I ended up watching it and its an appreciable effort, but the film was average.
Although the end scene was really good, I mean that homeless person part.The film is about an infamous greeting card writer and tells how his professional life stumbles upon.
While trying to make a comeback, he has to face a couple of trouble, including his unexpected romance and to keep up the promise he had made to a rich guy.
Till the final scene they kept the momentums surrounding them both.
So it feels like an intentional drag, since the whole film depended on those things and nothing else.Worth watching for Bob Odenkirk.
The rest of the cast was not bad.
Whatever the concept is, like, about a writer, kind of poet, but it avoids to exposing us the character how great he's with his work.
So this is not a film with full details and should be watched without any expectation, or else better not think to pick it.5/10.
I packed it after maybe 10 minutes.
This writer of greeting cards loses his job, and apparently starts another similar job for higher stakes.Before we get to that, however, there is a bizarre scene wherein our man hears moaning from another room, and enters to find a giant but hostile owl-like creature 'involved' with an unseen female.
huh?
huh?
Too rich for my blood.
Click!
No, I don't want to know what this was supposed to be, or what it symbolized (I think it was some kind of dream sequence).
So, don't write me an explanation.
I ain't interested.
I am not into weird.
Enter at own risk..
not good.
Waste of time but good acting 5 points for the lead.
Saturday Night Live Sketch.
This might have been funny as a five minute SNL sketch, but it didn't work as a movie.
Don't waste your time..
Weird Sexism Abounds.
First, Amber Tamblin plays a love interest for Odenkirk, even though he's TWENTY YEARS OLDER than she is.
Silly me.
I thought she was playing his daughter.
Their scenes together are kiddie porn with clothes.
(And, of course, a female child is hostage fodder later in the show.
When will Hollyweird get the message that children don't exist for men to use -- even as artistic devices?) Second, there's a weird as hell voice over on a fake historical film by misogynist extraordinaire David Lynch.
We now know, from the Twin Peaks reboot, that any pretensions of story or "art" throughout his career were there solely as misogyny delivery devices.
He did a series about a blond kid being raped and raped and raped and beaten and raped and murdered solely because it got him off.
And, now, he gets to show naked women surrounded by clothed men who get raped and beaten and raped and beaten and murdered.
And, this is the guy you call in to do a (yawn...) "ironic" voice-over on your "rom com?" I have been a fan of Better Call Saul, but right now, I may not even bother to watch the third season because I won't be able to get this movie and its sexism out of my head.
TRUST.
COMES.
Hollywood.
What Saul Goodman did before Law School.
This could have been the prequel to Better Call Saul which, of course, is the prequel to Breaking Bad. For better or for worse I like the fact that there is a market for these little pieces because we definitely need a bridge between a full feature film and a series.
I had said many times that what is wrong with most movies and series is that they have no idea about how much time they need to tell their story.
A film needs to go 90 minutes and most can't entertain for that long (if they entertain at all).
Most series have the idea of going on and on until the viewers start throwing rotten fruit at the screen.
Are you really trying to tell me that you need seven seasons to tell a story about zombies?
This went an hour and five minutes which was about perfect to tell this odd little tale..
Watch it, you will love it.
After long time, I got lucky.
Not as in getting laid, but as in watching a movie that not only made my day but I think, now I can wait like forever for the next good movie like "Girlfriend's Day" to watch again (hopefully with someone to get laid).
Please don't do all those "Yikes" or "Ewww's".
Cause this one was really super awesome.From every single point of view i.e. direction, acting, music and what not.
Real-life like performances by Bob Odenkirk and Amber Tamblyn with not-so-good movie script and story are the reasons I'm celebrating tonight.
There are more than one reasons to mark this movie as a "must watch" and a "repeat watch" for myself..
Pretty much a complete waste of time..
I came across this Netflix short movie, just over one hour.
It has been raining all day, I needed something to watch.I had enjoyed Odenkirk in 'Breaking Bad' and as 'Better Call Saul', he is a fun actor to watch, he creates interesting roles.But this one, also written by him, falls mostly flat.
Bob Odenkirk is Ray Wentworth, writer of romantic cards.
In fact for three years in a row, a few years earlier, he was recognized as card writer of the year.
But now we find him uninspired, unable to write anything meaningful.
One friend thinks it started when his wife left him three years earlier.He loses his job, he can't write, he can't pay his rent.
When he learns of a contest, to write a new type of card, for Girlfriend's Day. In his favor it is only open to new writers or writers who are currently out of work.Along the way, in his favorite bar, he meets Amber Tamblyn, 20 years his junior, as Jill.
The meeting seems random, they become friends, they kiss, the spend the night together, she becomes his girlfriend.
But not all is as it seems.The Problem I have with this short movie is it has no substance, just a silly story, silly situations, and a few situations where Ray gets beat up.
It is just a vehicle to give the actors jobs and for Netflix to produce some subscriber-only content.I am disappointed..
Could've Actually Been A Tad Longer....
I saw this latest in the long line of Netflix original movies over the weekend, and I noticed it's an especially short movie -- only a little over an hour?
I honestly think this could've stood to be a tad longer, to maybe develop itself a little more, but whatever."Better Call Saul"'s Bob Odenkirk heads up the cast as a former star greeting card writer who has lost that "magic touch", until a new holiday (the titular "Girlfriend's Day") is invented, and a cash prize leads everyone and their brother on a wild goose chase to get him (or force him rather) to come up with the perfect words for the first greeting card for the new holiday.I am on the fence on this one -- I did like the actors and the premise, but again really think it needed to be a bit more developed, and most of it felt a little stale.
Amber Tamblyn and Stacy Keach co-star.