The Incredible Jessica James is a 2017 American romantic comedy film written and directed by James C. Strouse and starring Jessica Williams, Chris O'Dowd, Noël Wells, Lakeith Stanfield, Megan Ketch and Zabryna Guevara. It was released on Netflix on July 28, 2017.
The Incredible Jessica James | |
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Directed by | James C. Strouse |
Written by | James C. Strouse |
Produced by | Michael B. Clark Alex Turtletaub |
Starring | Jessica Williams Chris O'Dowd Noël Wells Lakeith Stanfield Megan Ketch Zabryna Guevara |
Cinematography | Sean McElwee |
Edited by | Jesse Gordon |
Music by | Keegan DeWitt |
Production company | Beachside Films |
Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
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Running time | 83 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
On a date with a guy she met on Tinder, Jessica (Jessica Williams) is telling him about her recent split from her boyfriend Damon. Jessica is a fiercely independent woman who works with children as part of a theatre project.
Jessica's best friend Tasha (Noël Wells) sets Jessica up on a blind date with Boone (Chris O'Dowd). It gets off to a bad start when Jessica explains her recent split while Boone tells her of his recent divorce. They hit it off anyway, and wind up spending the night together.
Jessica is a playwright, but her submissions are repeatedly rejected. To make ends meet, she works with kids at a children's theatre workshop. Although she likes Boone, she keeps imagining and dreaming that she's in random situations with Damon.
Jessica and Boone meet for a walk and admit that they obsessively follow their respective exes' social media. They agree to unfollow them and follow each other's exes instead, as a way of keeping tabs on them less directly.
They go on more dates, and Jessica starts to fall for Boone. But when she drops in on him unexpectedly, she finds him in a seemingly compromising position with his ex-wife. He tries to explain, but she leaves, hurt.
Jessica focuses on her children's workshop; then she and Boone meet in the park and reconcile. Jessica gets an offer to lead a stage reading of one of her plays in London, and Boone offers to accompany her using his frequent-flyer miles. Instead, the final scene shows her on the flight with Tasha and Shandra, one of her students, who speculate that Boone must be her "boyfriend" to have given them free tickets to accompany her.
The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2017.[2] On January 23, 2017, Netflix acquired the distribution rights[3] and began streaming it on July 28, 2017.[4]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89%, based on 61 reviews, and an average rating of 7.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Incredible Jessica James makes its standard storyline feel new, almost purely on the strength of a captivating, potentially star-making performance from Jessica Williams."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[6]
Films by James C. Strouse | |
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Written and directed |
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