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Having a man wipe his own blood off the floor after a botched suicide attempt is an unorthodox way to open a comedy. But Upright Citizens Brigade founders Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts use that image as a starting point for their long-form improv chops, spinning off into a dadaist buddy-flick picaresque rife with pop-culture riffs and just enough laughs to keep its dicy amalgam of theoretic comedy and slapstick dick jokes afloat. "Why’d you try to kill yourself?" demands boorish, eccentric shrink Orloff (Roberts) when milquetoast marketing man Martin (Walsh) shows up for help. Complicity in the death of a man costumed as an egg roll has something to do with it. If that seems logical, you’re game for a comic-book odyssey as Martin is dragooned through Orloff’s demented demi-world: a riotous softball game, a shambolic dinner theater, a tony strip club with an ethnic grandma baking sweet-potato pie in the cellar. Certain characters — a guy with a yen for shitting in the sink, a homicidal ex with a gargantuan schlong — are sophomoric, but cameos from David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, and SNL’s Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, and Amy Poehler (a UCB alum) are fun. And soon this experiential "hardcore, balls-to-the-wall psychotherapy" starts working. When Martin musters the guts to kick Big Dick in the jewels at just the right moment, Orloff cheers: "That’s how you do it! Forget Zoloft! That’s how you raise your serotonin, buddy!" (87 minutes)
BY MIKE MILIARD
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