C.O.G. The FIRST screen adaptation of a work by David Sedaris (watch the trailer)

This was not on my radar at all, at all at all. C.O.G. is out in theaters. It opened today and I didn't have a clue it existed! Based on the autobiographical story by David Sedaris, the film even screened at Sundance. How did this happen?!  I'm an amateur. Obviously. I'm not feeling sorry for myself; I'm being accurate.  As an amateur I'm not on any studio's pr email list so I scour the net, snooping around looking for the bookish movie news I crave. But I get sloppy and miss things and I missed this! Sorry to the David Sedaris fans out there but why didn't you let me know? Share the wealth people! Fingers crossed that Robert Abele's review in the L.A. Times is NOT to be believed; he makes C.O.G. from Sedaris' NAKED, sound easily missable. Actually he called it a "patronizing washout."  Ouch! 

I don't know though; I just watched the trailer (below) and I'm thinking the Wrap may have it right. Did you see their blurb splashed on the poster? DAVID SEDARIS FANS WILL BE THRILLED.  I'm not surprised I'm intrigued, as a sucker for a coming of age story - like the recent The Spectacular Now based on Tim Tharp's ya book - this speaks to me. The fact that I have a restless twenty year old son itching to get out there in the world and get his own hands dirty doesn't hurt.  I hope the LA Times has it wrong; David Sedaris fans have waited a long time for this first ever adaptation of a work by the legendary author, I hope the filmmakers nail it.

The movie is director Kyle Patrick Alvarez' second film; the story goes that Sedaris was won over after Alvarez tracked him down and convinced him to watch his only other directing credit Easier With Practice. Sedaris thought it was beautiful. I just found an EW article from when C.O.G. debuted at Sundance and it sounds like Sedaris was pretty pleased with what Alvarez delivered. Read it yourself, see what you think.

The Sean Astin look alike playing David Jonathan Groff (above left) may be familiar from Glee and a host of other tv shows. Abele calls Groff "a side-kick in his own story." Double Ouch!  It sounds like Groff is - not surprisingly - outshone by Denis O'Hare and Corey Stoll. I LOVED Stoll in House of Cards and CAN NOT wait to see him in the adaptations of This is Where I Leave You and Gillian Flynn's Dark Places Dark Places with Charlize Theron - as well as C.O.G. where he plays a fellow farmworker with a crush on Groff's 'David.' That has got to be hilarious. That's Stoll on the right in the image above. 

The official storyline:  David (Jonathan Groff) plans a summer in the Northwest with his friend Jennifer (Troian Bellisario of Pretty Little Liars), working on an apple farm. But when Jennifer unexpectedly bails on him, David is left to dirty his hands alone and jump into a series of misadventures that will take him to unfamiliar - and hilariously uncomfortable - places.

Here's the trailer ... I'd love to hear your thoughts.