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sunburned and surrounded by the corpses. Hitch threatens to kill Grail, whom he has taken hostage, in retaliation for
Freeman's betrayal, but Freeman kills Hitch. Grail, freaked out, shouts for help. Freeman panics, and, attempting to quiet her, puts a pillow over her head, forlornly insisting that she is supposed to love him. Freeman fantasizes that she expresses her love, and that the talent scout witnessed this as part of "performance art comedy" and drove them to Las Vegas where they married, and he becomes a star on Monte Guy's show. This is interrupted when the police arrive, finding Freeman laughing hysterically among the arranged bodies, arranged like the celebrity couch for Monte Guy.
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reluctantly opens the trunk, only for one of the victims, who was armed with a pistol, to shoot and kill T-Bird before dying. Unable to handle any more death or killing, Freeman convinces Hitch to drive into the desert with him and leaves him for dead. Freeman leaves a note apologizing to Grail for his behavior and confesses to the police. The man who he confesses to turns out not to be a cop but a talent scout for Monte Guy. The scout interprets the confession as a comedy routine and agrees to watch his next set at the club.
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he intends to audition for a standup competition run by Vegas showman Monte Guy. Freeman, an obsessive fan of vaudeville and other early 20th century comedy, becomes confused by the more obnoxious and transgressive humor preferred by the people he meets. Along the way, he picks up a hitchhiker nicknamed Hitch whose previous rides are shown to have either disappeared or died mysteriously. When Hitch learns that
Freeman intends to become a standup comedian, he shares career advice and agrees to become Freeman's manager.
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T-Bird as the town's most popular, transgressive comic. Freeman further draws the enmity of T-Bird when
Freeman stands up for Grail, T-Bird's abused girlfriend. As Grail and Freeman grow closer, Hitch reveals he was the one who murdered the heckler. Although relieved that he is not a murderer, Freeman panics over the growing body count, as Hitch robs local stores to pay off a debt to Monte Guy. Intimidated and unwilling to give up Hitch's connection to Monte Guy, Freeman agrees to keep quiet and continue his act.
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himself murdering the hecklers and incorporate this edginess into his act. The next morning, Freeman finds the corpse of a heckler in his car. Fearing that he murdered the heckler in fit of drunken rage, Freeman drives into the desert to bury the body. This proves more difficult than anticipated, necessitating dismembering the corpse and exhuming it when it becomes obvious the spot they chose is not suitable.
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After the death of his beloved mother, middle-aged Peoria accountant Lenny
Freeman quits his job to follow his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian. Freeman bids a fond farewell to his coworkers, who barely acknowledge him, and takes his mother's 1953 Oldsmobile on a road trip to Las Vegas, where
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On Hitch's advice, Freeman performs at a local comedy club's open mic night. Freeman follows T-Bird, the town's most popular comic, and bombs horribly, alienating the audience with his stale jokes and clean-cut persona. In convincing
Freeman not to give up, Hitch advises him to instead visualize
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While making out with Grail, Freeman discovers a dismembered body part in his car. Freaked out, he yells at Grail to leave, offending her. T-Bird sees her leave and confronts
Freeman with a shotgun. T-Bird demands to see the car's trunk, where Hitch and Freeman have hiding the bodies. Freeman
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Hitch insists
Freeman appear again at the open mic now that he has inspiration for new material. In shock and wearing a bloodstained shirt, Freeman makes a public confession to the murder and subsequent attempts to cover it up. The audience interprets this as black comedy, and Freeman displaces
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At the comedy club, Freeman attempts to distance himself from his previous performances, reverting to clean humor. It goes poorly, and he leaves the club to seek inspiration from the bodies in the car's trunk. When he finds it empty, he returns to his hotel room, where he finds Hitch, horribly
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214:. Believing himself responsible for the death of a heckler, Lenny publicly confesses, becoming an instant hit for what audiences perceive as transgressive humor.
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wrote that the film "only has one big joke, and everything around it is either long-winded setup or deflating letdown". John DeFore of
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as Lenny, an unfunny, aspiring standup comedian who, on a road trip to Las Vegas, picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, played by
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rated it 3/4 stars and described it as a film that initially seems to be a simple comedy but turns into a "deranged farce".
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has a rating of 37/100 based on four reviews. Though describing the film's central conceit as "a winner", Scott Tobias of
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called it "an unconvincing black comedy whose aspirations rival its deluded hero's". Katie Walsh of the
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wrote that the film depends too much on violence and gore at the expense of humor. Tom Keogh of
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won the Grand Jury Prize for New
American Cinema at the Seattle International Film Festival.
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is a 2016 American black comedy film written and directed by Ned
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448:Tobias, Scott (2017-06-07).
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475:Walsh, Katie (2017-06-08).
450:"Film Review: 'Middle Man'"
366:"'Middle Man': SIFF Review"
364:DeFore, John (2016-06-13).
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626:American independent films
502:Keogh, Tom (2017-06-07).
278:Sal Richards as Monte Guy
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651:Films about accountants
641:Films about hitchhiking
606:2016 crime comedy films
601:2016 black comedy films
154:June 10, 2016
611:2016 independent films
371:The Hollywood Reporter
323:The Hollywood Reporter
631:Films about comedians
661:2010s American films
636:Films set in Nevada
294:on June 10, 2016.
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308:review aggregator
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175:Running time
147:Release date
119:Chris Claeys
111:Dick Buckley
179:104 minutes
64:Gerald Webb
52:Produced by
47:Ned Crowley
39:Ned Crowley
36:Directed by
596:2016 films
590:Categories
576:Middle Man
565:Middle Man
546:2017-10-20
515:2017-10-20
488:2017-10-21
461:2017-10-20
434:2017-10-20
428:Metacritic
408:2017-10-20
377:2017-10-20
348:References
342:Middle Man
312:Middle Man
304:Metacritic
288:Middle Man
267:Anne Dudek
249:Jim O'Heir
208:Jim O'Heir
203:Middle Man
158:2016-06-10
133:Production
94:Anne Dudek
79:Jim O'Heir
44:Written by
22:Middle Man
298:Reception
263:as T-Bird
116:Edited by
269:as Grail
257:as Hitch
192:Language
124:Music by
72:Starring
455:Variety
317:Variety
283:Release
195:English
184:Country
156: (
135:company
162: (
570:IMDb
306:, a
243:Cast
218:Plot
164:SIFF
579:at
568:at
302:On
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356:^
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
