Closer to the snarky satire of Thank You for Smoking than the back-slapping of Soapdish, this snappy treat tickles up belly laughs from the golden larynx of the entertainment industry, as it delves into the strangely competitive world of the voiceover artist. Writer, director and rising star Lake Bell plays voice-coach and wannabe VO star Carol, struggling to escape from the jowly shadow of her father, a pitch-perfect portrait of pomposity from the mighty Fred Melamed.
With former "voice of God" Don LaFontaine now holding forth in heaven itself, a string of increasingly throaty growlers line up to snag the trailer for the forthcoming Amazon Games "quadrilogy" – a return to the kind of "epic cinema" for which only the titular ad-line (once LaFontaine's trademark) will do. Working with insider knowledge, but without descending to smug self-referentiality, Bell takes swipes at gender inequality, familial dysfunction and professional back-stabbing with an air of unease that is both pointed and entertaining. There's screwball romance buried in there too, but crucially it takes a backseat to the story of a woman making it in a man's world, with Lake seeing little need to drench the most brusque moments of cynicism in schmaltz. A cameo from Geena Davis is particularly tart, and all the better for it.
