10 years ago, Jessica Watkins left Nashville to become a star. Now she
lives in New York City, trying to make it as a stand-up comedian - but
mainly waiting tables at a restaurant. But it's the age of social media
and self promotion, so she decides to cross the US from Delaware to
California on foot, doing stand-up gigs along the way. But what started as
a mere publicity stunt becomes so much more along the way, a journey of
self-discovery and self-re-invention, and also a journey that lets her see
things in a new life, from her view on others and on life itself, and even
gives her new tools to deal with past traumatic experiences - and all in
the name of comedy ... Now in this day and age, people trying
to promote themselves with slightly off-beat promotional stunts are really
a dime a dozen, and Jessica Watkins quite probably isn't the first one
trying to do it by walking across the country on foot (this is an unproven
assumption though) - but what makes this documentary special is that it
ditches all the (tired) sensationalism that comes with such stunts and
instead goes for an almost brutally honest approach, which ranges from
comedy gigs that didn't go quite as well as planned to rather traumatic
revelations about Jessica's past, even in relation to her cross-country
experience, and shows successes as well as failures - which makes her as
the film's focal point as well as the film as such so totally relatable
... even if nothing could be further from you than being a stand-up
comedian. And the other thing that makes Jessica's experiences so
accessible is her light-footed and often comedic approach to the material,
not only via the interjected stand-up routines but by her whole winning
attitude. And all of this makes this a very interesting and rewarding
watch for sure.
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