In Matthew Shear’s Fantasy Life, the writer, director, and star plays Sam, who loses his paralegal job and will take just about anything. Fortunately, his therapist’s granddaughters need a babysitter. Sam takes the job, but winds up getting a lot more out of it than just cash to stay afloat. Amanda Peet and Alessandro Nivola co-star with Shear alongside Zosia Mamet, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Jessica Harper, Holland Taylor, and Sheng Wang.
Shear is a longtime favorite of Noah Baumbach, appearing in While We’re Young, Mistress America, The Meyerowitz Stories, and Marriage Story. It’s clear that Baumbach was a heavy influence on Shear as a filmmaker and in the sharp comedic tone. But Shear’s biggest influence was his own personal story, having conceived the idea from his time working as a “manny” for Manhattan families while grappling with mental health problems.
SYNOPSIS: After losing his job as a paralegal, Sam Stein (Matthew Shear) suffers a panic attack and stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist’s three granddaughters. The girls’ mother, Dianne (Amanda Peet), is an actor whose once-promising career has stalled; she’s in a difficult marriage to David, a rock bassist. When David goes abroad on tour, Dianne and Sam discover an easy rapport as well as a shared history of mental illness. Sam joins Dianne’s family to babysit for the summer on Martha’s Vineyard, and he ends up in a house with the woman he pines for, her husband, the three kids, and all four grandparents, including his psychiatrist. A smart, romantic dramedy co-starring Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Jessica Harper, Zosia Mamet, and Holland Taylor. Winner of the Narrative Feature Audience Award at South by Southwest.
Greenwich Entertainment will release Fantasy Life in New York on March 27th, with a national expansion on April 3rd.
