Jenny Slate has a new movie with Zachary Quinto and Jon Hamm. Though these are all people capable of being funny, this does not look like a funny movie. It’s called Aardvark—everyone loves a noun title with no context—and it’s about a therapist (Slate) who starts boning her client’s brother (Quinto and Hamm, respectively), who may or may not be psychologically torturing her client. (The sequel to Aardvark is called Giraffe and it’s about the inevitable ethics investigation.) There’s ominous string music and that particular ochre light that says “adult drama”. I like all these people, but I’m not sure this trailer is making a great case for Aardvark. It doesn’t look bad, it just looks like the kind of movie that is easily lost in the shuffle, only to be rediscovered once it’s on demand. And it definitely looks like the kind of movie that ends in murder.
Slate is best known as a comedian, but she has low-key been putting together a dramatic resume, too. Some roles, as in Obvious Child and Landline, straddle the line—although Landline is definitely more dramatic than comedic—but Aardvark looks solidly in the dramatic camp, and it doesn’t seem weird to see Jenny Slate in that spot. Of course she’s still doing comedy and a ton of voice work, but now there is stuff like Venom on her resume, and a “futuristic thriller” with Dave Bautista and Sofia Boutella. So not only is she now making adult dramas with Jon Hamm, she is also getting roles in action movies. At one point she talked about wanting to prove herself beyond comedy, and she’s well on her way. The next thing will be to make a drama that doesn’t look like it was shot in a weekend at her friend’s house.
Jenny Slate and Jon Hamm are known celebrity friends. Going by this trailer, they have at least one sex scene in this movie (and going by the PG-13 rating, it’s not very involved). Do you think that’s more or less awkward with a friend?
