Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar, Anupam Kher, Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant
OUR RATING: ★★★★★
Story:
Romantic comedy directed by Michael Showalter based on the real courtship of Kumail Nanjiani and his now-wife, Emily V. Gordon. Kumail’s who also wrote the screenplay.
The story follows Pakistan-born aspiring comedian Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani), who connects with grad student Emily (Zoe Kazan) after one of his standup sets. However, what they thought would be just a one-night stand blossoms into the real thing, which complicates the life that is expected of Kumail by his traditional Muslim parents. When Emily is beset with a mystery illness, it forces Kumail to navigate the medical crisis with her parents, Beth and Terry (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) who he’s never met, while dealing with the emotional tug-of-war between his family and his heart.
REVIEWS
Best Quotes (Total Quotes: 22)
[referring to Chris]
Kumail: He’s like if a serial killer fucked an inspirational speaker.
CJ: He’s like Daniel Day-Lewis, except he sucks.
Kumail: Hi.
Emily: Hi.
Kumail: My name’s Kumal.
Emily: Yeah, we know.
Jesse: Yeah, we saw you perform.
Kumail: Now that the niceties are out of the way I have to tell you that when you yelled at me it really threw me off and you really shouldn’t heckle comedians, it’s so rude.
Emily: I didn’t heckle you, I just woo-hoo’d you. That’s supportive.
Kumail: Okay, that’s common misconception.
Emily: Uh-huh.
Kumail: Yelling anything at a comedian is considered heckling. Heckling doesn’t have to be negative.
Emily: So if I, if I yelled out like, “You’re amazing in bed,” that would be a heckle?
Kumail: Yeah, it would be an accurate heckle.
Emily: Oh.
Jesse: Oh. Bye.
Emily: Don’t go.
Kumail: No, you can…
Jesse: I’m going.
Emily: You scared my friend off now.
Emily: I think I’m going to go home. This was fun.
Kumail: Wait. Wait, we haven’t had sex again yet. Stay.
Emily: Yeah, I’m just not that kind of girl, I only have sex once on the first date.
Kumail: What is happening? What are you doing?
Emily: I’m changing under this blanket.
Kumail: I’ve seen everything. Do you remember, we were just having sex?
Emily: Yeah, but you were like in the throes of passion and… Listen I had a really nice time. Thank you very much. I’m just going to like call Uber and go home, and I hope… Just…
[as she contacts Uber, Kumail’s phone starts beeps at the same time, showing that he’s the Uber driver]
Kumail: Your travel will be ready as soon as he puts on his pants.
Emily: Were you available for rides while we were fucking?
Kumail: Yeah, but I only looked a couple times.
[as their doorbell rings]
Sharmeen: Oh. I wonder who that could be.
Kumail: Yeah.
Sharmeen: Let me check. I don’t know.
Kumail: I’m guessing it’s a young, single Pakistani woman who just happened to be driving by our house, which is on a cul-de-sac.
Azmat: Well…
Kumail: And I’m also guessing that the phrase “dropped in” will be said in the next ten seconds. Ten. Ten, nine, eight, seven…
Azmat: Quiet.
Sharmeen: Everyone, this is Zubeida. She just dropped in.
[as she hands Kumial a photo]
Zubeida: Oh, here, Kumail, for your files.
Kumail: Thank you.
Zubeida: Your X-Files because…
Kumail: Thank you.
Zubeida: … that’s your favorite show. Huh?
Kumail: Thank you so much.
Zubeida: “The truth is out there!”
Kumail: I have to tell you something. Here we go. Yeah. I’ve, I’ve been dating this girl. She’s white.
Naveed: Oh. I thought you were going to say you were involved in a hit-and-run or you got caught forging some checks. But a white girl? I mean, that’s such a cliché.
[to the other diner patrons who are looking at them]
Kumail: It’s okay, and we hate terrorists.
[referring to his collection of photos of Pakistani women]
Emily: Are you judging Pakistan’s Next Top Model or something?
Kumail: No.
Emily: Seriously. Who are these women?
Kumail: Okay, um, you know how we have arranged marriage in my culture. These are those women.
Emily: These are women in Pakistan who want to marry you? They’re not in Pakistan. You’ve met these women?
Kumail: Just with my parents and stuff, but we haven’t, like…
Emily: But you’re not serious about this, are you?
Kumail: It’s my mom’s thing. I just go along with it.
Emily: So, what does your mom think about you and me then? She doesn’t know about me, does she?
Kumail: No. Emily, just…
Emily: Fuck! Five fucking months of red flags. Oh, my God. I’m so stupid! You ducking my parents. Oh, my God, the two-day rule.
Kumail: No, that had nothing to do with it.
Emily: Seriously. Red flag after red flag. You’re such a liar. You lied to me. You lied to your parents. And those are just the people you like. Is there someone that you’re not lying to? I’d love to meet them because then I could tell them what a fucking liar you are!
Kumail: You know what, you didn’t tell me about your divorce until recently. So, you were hiding fucking something, too.
Emily: My divorce does not mean that our future is impossible. It actually means the direct opposite. I’m not hiding anything from you. Okay? I’m an open fucking book.
Kumail: You know what we call arranged marriage in Pakistan, Emily? Marriage. Okay? We just call it marriage. There’s another type of marriage. It’s called love marriage, and that’s bad. My cousin Rehan married an Irish woman and he was kicked out of the family. Nobody is allowed to talk to him.
Emily: Why didn’t you tell me any of this?
Kumail: Because I didn’t think you’d fucking understand, and I was fucking right.
Emily: You don’t think that I could fathom your life in any fucking way?
Kumail: Oh, you think you could understand me? I’m fighting a one thousand four hundred year-old culture. You were ugly in high school. There’s a big fucking difference. I’m sorry. I can’t lose my family.
Emily: Can you imagine a world in which we end up together?
Kumail: I don’t know.
Emily: I have to go. Don’t fucking call me.
[Emily leaves]
Sam Highsmith: I don’t want kids. People say, “Sam, you’re going to love it. This kid, you’re going to have a kid. He’s going to be your best friend.” A best friend that pukes on you and shits everywhere and is constantly screaming. I already have friends like that.
[at the hospital]
Kumail: I’m looking for Emily Gardner. She was checked in tonight.
[referring to Emily]
Dr. Wright: There’s a massive infection in her lungs, and all her vitals are elevated. Does she have HIV?
Kumail: What? No. I mean, she…
Dr. Wright: Are you her husband?
Kumail: No.
Dr. Wright: Oh, we need to intubate her immediately. I need a family member to sign this. So I’m going to ask you again, are you her husband?
Kumail: What does, uh, intubate mean?
Dr. Wright: We have to put her on a respirator, and to do that, we need to put her in a medically induced coma.
Kumail: Coma?
Dr. Wright: Yes, to stabilize her so we can work on the infection. And it needs to happen right now. So, I’m going to ask you one last time, are you her husband?
Nurse Judy: [to Kumail] You should call her family.
[referring Emily’s medically induced coma]
Chris: You know, it might be a good thing. Like, she might wake up with a new skill. Like, my cousin, uh, blacked out once, and then, when he came to, he thought he knew a different language.
CJ: Did he?
Chris: No. Apparently, it was, it was just gibberish that he made up. It was brain damage.
Kumail: I know you guys said that you don’t need me this day, but I think I’m just going to wait anyway.
Beth: You guys broke up. I’m not sure why you’re here. You don’t have to worry about being committed to anything, Kumail, You didn’t want to when she was awake, there’s no need to do it when she’s unconscious.
Kumail: Well it’s more complicated than that.
Beth: Is it? Because I know about the two-day rule. I know about the head shots and the secrets. She tells us everything. You really don’t have to stay, Kumail. You have already done…
[she mouths the word “enough”]
Kumail: I’m just going to stay for a second.
[referring to the seat next to her]
Kumail: Is this seat…
[Beth puts her jacket on the seat]
Kumail: Okay.
[Kumail takes a seat a little further from Emily’s family; referring to Beth who’s looking at him]
Kumail: Is that lady still looking at me?
[joining Terry and Beth in the hospital canteen]
Terry: So, uh, 9/11.
[everyone looks at Terry expectantly]
Terry: No, I mean, I’ve always wanted to have a conversation with… about it. With people.
Kumail: You’ve never talked to people about 9/11?
Terry: No, what’s your, what’s your stance?
Kumail: What’s my stance on 9/11? Oh, um, anti. It was a tragedy, I mean we lost nineteen of our best guys.
Beth: Huh?
Kumail: That was a joke, obviously. 9/11 was a terrible tragedy, and it’s not funny to joke about it.
Terry: Oh, hey. Sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you. I was just wondering if we were going to do anything, have you got any parlor games?
Kumail: I, I, don’t. What are parlor games?
Terry: Card games, word games. Do you play any word games?
Kumail: No, I’ve never…
Terry: Do you ever play “You Can’t Rhyme It”?
Kumail: How does that go?
Terry: It’s, uh, basically, you know, you try and find a word, a real world, that nobody can rhyme and then…
Kumail: Okay. Stonehenge.
Terry: Yeah, so you would win.
Kumail: Yeah.
Terry: Yeah, that’d be a winner.
Terry: Here’s a joke.
Beth: No, Terry, don’t. Terry is about as funny as a fart in at a funeral.
Terry: No, this is funny. This is a funny one. A giraffe walks into a bar and he says to the bartender, “Highball’s on me.”
[Kumail just stares at him]
Terry: You get it, right?
Kumail: Oh, that was the end of the joke?
Terry: Yeah, of course it was.
Kumail: That’s the whole joke?
Terry: That’s the joke, that’s the beauty of it. Boom.
Kumail: I thought there was more.
Terry: Look, again, he’s a giraffe, he’s tall, so it would stand to reason his testicles are high, and a highball is a drink. And you ruined it by saying I wasn’t funny first, that’s what it was.
Beth: [laughing] Oh, no, no, no.
Kumail: I think I screwed up with your daughter.
Beth: Yeah, you did.
Sharmeen: I was so worried. We saw on the news that a train derailed, and we thought that you were on the train, and you had died.
Kumail: Nobody died on that train, Ma.
Sharmeen: But did they look under the train?
[referring to cheating to his wife]
Terry: It was horrible, too. As soon as I was finished, as soon as I finished, I was like, “What did you fucking do? What did you just do? What did you do?”
[he pauses]
Terry: You know, that, that, uh, moment of clarity you get, right after an orgasm.
Kumail: Yeah.
Terry: I told Beth right away. I had to. She was devastated, and now she hates me.
Kumail: She might be mad at you, but, but she doesn’t hate you. Should’ve heard the way she was talking about you.
Kumail: Hey, can I ask you something? Why’d you tell her?
Terry: Oh, I had to. I’m no good with guilt.
Kumail: Do you guys talk about it?
Terry: Not anymore. She said she forgave me, but, but, no. She hasn’t. Let me give you some advice, Kumail. You’re going to know the woman that you want to spend the rest of your life with when you cheat on her. When you cheat on her and you just feel like shit.
Kumail: So to fully know I love someone, I have to cheat on them?
Terry: Out loud, it sounds stupid. Uh, it’s… Yeah, that’s terrible advice. Love, love isn’t easy. That’s why they call it love.
Kumail: I don’t really get that either.
Terry: I know. I thought I could just start saying something and something smart would come out.
Total Quotes: 22
Trailer:
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The Big Sick tells the story of a Pakistan-born Uber-driver and comedian called Kumail Nanjiani (playing himself) and Emily Gardner (played by Zoe Kazan) who fall in love. It shows us the difficult circumstances of their relationship because of their cultures. His family is very traditional and his parents but mostly his mum wants to force him into an arranged-marriage. The dilemma he has to face, either to live with the women he loves and getting kicked out of his own family or leaving his girl behind and pursuing the life which was planned for him, is written very touching and has a lot of fun moments.
It brings the problem of two cultures clashing into each other to the big screen in a funny and romantic way. But it’s not just that classic culture clash and problems with the parents of the more traditional family. The great thing about this movie is the second act which really elevates this film and helped it to becoming my favourite motion picture of the last year.
In said second act Kumail has, due to a heavy illness of Emily, to spend a lot of time with her parents (played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano). He does not really have to, but he feels the need to do so. Kumail did not know Emily’s parents at this point and so the very first interactions between him and especially Holly Hunter’s character are simply hilarious and extremely depressing at the same time. This second act makes the movie stand out from all the other, often pretty bad, romantic comedies.
I haven’t laughed that hard in a film screening since basically forever. It is a lovely little story, well told within a lovely little movie fully packed with great performances. The screenplay is written by Kumail and his wife which is probably the reason for it to feel so realistic. The dialogues are sweeping and every joke is done on point. It really did feel like a documentary at time, not in a disregarding way towards the actors and actresses but in a positive way in which I really felt involved with this story. Even in the sad scenes or parts of the movie it is always able to put a little smile upon your face.
I think a lot of people are able to relate to Kumail and his issues with his parents, religion and culture. The fear of not living up to the standards which our parents have forced on us is very present. This film touches on so many difficult topics and is still able to sum all of them up into a fantastic romantic comedy without being cliché at any time.
To be honest it does show its flaws within the third act which maybe does go on for a bit too long. But in my opinion this does not matter. I was fully entertained over the course of this two hour long comedy which is able to bring you laughter and tears within seconds.
After watching this movie five times I can fully recommend giving this heart-breaking comedy a try.
Rating: 4/5
The Big Sick is the new romantic comedy brought to you by Michael Showalter, the director of another great film called, Hello, My Name Is Doris. He brought his own style into a weird story that is actually 100% true. This film tells the actual love story of comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon written by themselves. As weird as that is, The Big Sick is one of the best films of 2017, it is a hilarious movie about love and family that works in almost every way.
My favorite thing about The Big Sick was the writing, it was funny, clever and awkward but it was also deep at times, when it needed to get real it got real and it gave you some insight into what love really is in this live, the film went from harmless romantic comedy to so much more thanks to this script, I absolutely loved it and the fact that it was written by our main characters in a way, it made it feel so real. The performances were great, some of the actors were literally playing themselves, but that is still quite the challenge, and my respects to Zoe Kazan for playing the role of Emily, she was literally reprising the role of the writer of the film, and the other writer was both her co-star and husband to the other writer.
I know this gets messy, ha-ha, but imagine what a day in set must have been, I really think she did an amazing job. In spite all that, the best performance in this film was given by Holly Hunter as Emily’s mother, she owned every scene she was in, especially a scene involving a comedy show, you understand her character completely and her performance was seriously Oscar worthy, at least for a nom.
The comedy in the film was also amazing, I haven’t laughed this hard while watching a movie in a long time, especially in one joke that I won’t spoil, I loved the way every joke landed, even in the most dramatic moments, when they threw a line it worked for me, I was really impressed with that, especially since I don’t love Kumail as a stand-up comedian. And not only his lines, most of the jokes in the script were amazing.
As for flaws, I can say the movie can get a little slow when we first go into the hospital setting, but it picks up almost immediately. I said most of the jokes land because there are a couple told by the character that plays Kumail roommate that simply didn’t, I did not like that character at all and I was glad we spent less and less time with him as the film progressed. That being said I really don’t think I have a lot of flaws with the film. I don’t know if Aidy Bryant was actually playing herself but she took no risks in this performance, she was doing exactly the same thing she does every Saturday night, if she was playing herself then I have no issue with that, if not, she was pretty bad.
Taking my flaws aside I do have to say The Big Sick is one of the best romantic films out there in a while, it reminded me a little bit of films like (500) Days of Summer, not because of the plot or the characters, but the way I felt once the film was over, I felt this is the kind of cleanse that I desperately needed. This is the kind of love stories I want in theaters, not stuff like Fifty Shades of Grey or How to be Single, and the fact that this is a true story makes it all that better. I’m going to give The Big Sick a 9.0/10.
Fantastic film, go check it out.
Rating: 5/5