Spoiler --Written, directed, AND starring Noel Wells. Emily (Noel Wells) returns to her hometown of Austin 'when "her" cat (now her ex Eric's cat) gets sick. she rushes back, and pretty much invites herself to stay with Eric and Celeste (Nick Thune and Britt Lower). it's so awkward. and all her own fault. clearly, Emily never got over Eric. He and Celeste are totally charming, and Emily keeps screwing up what could be a good friendship with them. the first half moves pretty slowly... and every single thing she does is terribly important, and a huge deal. she's so emotional. she needs counseling or something. about an hour in, Emily gets drunk, comes onto Eric, and tries to put down the new girlfriend. but he's not having it. he finally tells her off, which she needed desperately. it just gets more and more painful to watch. Emily totally goes off the rails and is having a breakdown. or maybe just too many klonopin. did all this really happen in her life? i hope not. or maybe parts of it, and she pieced it together and embellished. who knows?

"Mr. Roosevelt" is fairly typical for an indie comedy, especially one written and directed by its star.

Indie movies used to be an alternative to Hollywood in that they would show you characters and situations that were something you wouldn't ordinarily see at the multiplex. Somewhere along the line that difference became a cliche. If you want to see something different, it doesn't help that you already know what that difference is going to be. Where's the surprise? Where's the challenge?

"Mr. Roosevelt" being an indie comedy means you can expect a lot of weird, off-hand lines of dialogue like "I forget what funny is", and nudity which, in a Hollywood movie, is usually a device to titillate audiences, but here just seems added to up the weird factor.

It's not unusual to see an unconventional lead in an indie flick, but I think Noel Wells doesn't really have star quality. Having written and directed the movie herself, of course she also cast herself in the lead role, but they can't all be Lake Bell (from "In a World") or even Lena Dunham ("Tiny Furniture"). The camera doesn't exactly love her. While watching the movie I found myself forgetting what she looked like occasionally, which is funny since she is in every scene.

The movie does have a few funny moments, though not many.

The plot concerns a struggling comedian who comes back to her hometown to say fairwell to her cat, the titular Mr. Roosevelt, as her ex-boyfriend and his new squeeze must have the cat put down.

The stage is obviously set for a "young person faces their past and confronts their issues" sort of movie, but here's the problem: I never believed that this character had a past, there or anywhere else, and I never believed that she cared about her cat enough to go all that way, or anything else. You can understand she might feel toward her ex's new lover, but the movie doesn't deal with them head-on, making her own feelings and motivations opaque, and making the character more distant than she ought to be.

This was a nice way to kill some time on a train ride. Enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I hope to see the lead actress in more films.