The Big Sick

I went into my Tuesday night showing of The Big Sick with high expectations. Good press. Good reviews. Premiered at Sundance.

It met all my expectations, and then exceeded them. I left the theater feeling like I had seen a perfect movie.

The film centers around Kumail, a Pakistani-American comedian and the woman, Emily, he falls in love with after meeting at one of his shows (when she's "heckling" him on stage). Emily is white, a tough thing to take home to his Muslim parents who are trying to arrange a marriage for him with a Pakistani woman. When Emily gets sick and has to be put into a coma, Kumail is forced into close quarters with Emily's parents.

That may not sound awesome, but I assure you, it is. I knew I'd like the film when, right off, there is a joke about becoming a celebrity and getting to hang with Elijah Wood. I literally laughed out loud. And it didn't stop, for me or other people in the audience who were also laughing out loud. I didn't just laugh, though; I also cried, and smiled, and completely related.

Everything in the film feels so real. It captures exactly that feeling of meeting someone new and what a new relationship is like. Kumail and Emily are real people (for real, though - the film is the story of how real Kumail and Emily, now married, met and is written by them) and they have real moments, fights, emotions and feelings.

The film is produced by Judd Appatow, who is credited with "discovering" Lena Dunham and giving Amy Schumer her movie breakthrough (I like Girls but think Trainwreck was just that). His films are generally known for being a tad too long, but at two hours, I thought The Big Sick was just right and didn't need any trimming or tightening.

I very highly recommend this movie to everyone.