(Dean) (2016)

Writer-director Martin does a stellar job of balancing sketch-comedy style laughs with genuinely touching moments.

by staying true to his offbeat brand of comedy, Martin has something compelling to say about moving on amidst — or perhaps because of — the humor of life.

Stay patient through those Seinfeldian stretches in which Martin isn’t so much acting as performing, and you’ll be treated to the bonus of some surprising emotional depth and poignancy.

Martin's Dean is more than funny enough to earn its keep, a gentle misfit tale that only gets baldly therapeutic at the very end.

Martin's a smooth enough director to make fuller and more ambitious pictures than Dean. This one's a promising start.