Taglines: A Comedy About Tragedy.
Dean (Demetri Martin) lives in Brooklyn and has recently lost his mother. His father Robert (Kevin Kline) is an engineer who lives in the suburbs and is having difficulty adjusting to a life alone. Dean’s ex-fiancée Michelle (Christine Woods) attempts to give back the engagement ring, as Dean has “un-proposed.” Dean refuses, suggesting she put it on a charm bracelet.
Dean’s best friend Brett (Reid Scott) is getting married. Dean is actually the “second best” man behind Kevin (Barry Rothbart). Brett and Dean were roommates, along with Eric (Rory Scovel) who has flown out from Los Angeles for the wedding. During the wedding ceremony, Dean sees Michelle’s wedding date and gets distracted. When asked to produce the wedding ring, he fumbles with it and drops it. Later during the reception, a drunken Kevin finishes up the best man speech. Dean begins his best man speech, but gets rudely interrupted by Kevin, who gets up and starts swinging at Dean.
Waking up in bed with his face in donuts the next morning, Dean gets a call from Robert. Robert says it is time to sell the house. Dean cannot deal with that, so tells his father to wait because he has to fly to Los Angeles to meet with ad agency “creatives” who want to use his drawings. His father has been frustrated by Dean’s lack of engagement, and has already brought in realtors Carol (Mary Steenburgen) and Patrick (Peter Scolari). Robert assumes that Patrick and Carol are husband and wife, but Carol says they are not. Robert sees that Carol has an online dating profile on her PC behind her realtor work. While he begins critiquing her profile, a relationship begins to form.
Dean meets with the advertising creatives, but is put off by their strange work habits and attitudes. They want to use his work to represent the “before” drawings in an advertisement for deodorant. The main character in the ad is a nerd, but the pitch is to have the deodorant enable the character to draw amazing detailed drawings after using the product. Dean excuses himself and leaves.
Dean is a 2016 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Demetri Martin and produced by Honora Productions. The film stars Martin, Gillian Jacobs and Kevin Kline. Martin plays the title character, Dean, who is a published cartoon artist who draws in a simple style with felt pen and Bristol board. The drawings in the film are done by Martin. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 16, 2016 and was released in the United States on June 2, 2017.
Dean (2017)
Directed by: Demetri Martin
Starring: Demetri Martin, Kevin Kline, Gillian Jacobs, Kathrine Barnes, Jesaiah Baer, H. Jon Benjamin, Kate Berlant, Camille Chen, Lila Claghorn, Carol Commissiong, Christian Dautresme
Screenplay by: Demetri Martin
Production Design by: Sam Lisenco
Cinematography by: Mark Schwartzbard
Film Editing by: Josh Salzberg
Costume Design by: Keri Langerman, Erica Rice
Set Decoration by: Dylan Pettengill
Music by: Mark Noseworthy, Orr Rebhun
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language and some suggestive material.
Distributed by: CBS Films
Release Date: June 2, 2017
