Garlin plays James, a struggling Chicago actor who is in his late 30s but still lives with his mother. He's got problems with eating, problems with his career due to his refusal to compromise (he quits a good gig on a Punk'd-esque reality show because he feels it's the work of the devil), and problems meeting a woman due to his horrifically low sense of self-esteem. When he meets Beth, an eccentric ice cream parlor employee played by Sarah Silverman, James finds someone who is cute and who genuinely likes him—but who has plenty of problems of her own. Their romance is the ostensible subject of I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, but it's just one of many storylines that intersect in the film. The movie is essentially a collection of hilarious insights about relationships reminiscent of those found in Annie Hall or Modern Romance, and while Garlin may not be a master filmmaker on the level of Allen or Brooks quite yet, his truthful observations and impeccable eye for casting make his debut feature a must-see.

The rhythm of the opening scenes of Cheese feels just a little off at first, but it's not an error on Garlin's part. The problem stems from the fact that for most viewers Garlin is so familiar as Larry David's manager Jeff on Curb Your Enthusiasm that we expect him to act the same way here; he's so good on that show that most of us have probably always assumed he was playing himself. But James is not Jeff—he's a sadder, nicer, slower guy, and Garlin inhabits this intelligent but self-loathing character beautifully. He also exhibits great taste when it comes to other actors, filling the movie's many supporting roles with some of the best comic performers in the business. Silverman, like Garlin himself, is terrific playing against type; Beth has none of the acidity for which the actress is known, but Silverman is completely believable in the offbeat role. Other actors, from Bonnie Hunt as another "chubby-chasing" love interest, to Saturday Night Live alumnus Tim Kazurinsky as a particularly distraught victim on James's reality show, are pitch-perfect; they create fully realized personas within a matter of seconds, and are funny and real in equal measures.

The casting of Kazurinsky is an especially nice touch, given that he co-wrote one of the greatest and most underrated Chicago romantic comedies ever made, About Last Night (Garlin pays homage to another influence by casting director Paul Mazursky as one of his bosses). Though not as emotionally dense as that film, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With follows in its footsteps by sacrificing all to authenticity—Garlin will gladly miss a laugh for the sake of honest behavior, which of course makes the laughs that do exist much more satisfying. Garlin also uses the About Last Night model in terms of his backdrop, beautifully utilizing Chicago locations to give his characters added weight and context. His movie is a love letter to the city, and the specificity of the locales makes one realize how cookie-cutter most films are in their approach to setting. In the end, this is something that could be said about the film as a whole: idiosyncratic and personal, it's a comedy that could only have come from the distinctive mind of its very talented creator.

— JIM HEMPHILL