Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: I'll Believe You

(This post originally appeared on September 13, 2010.)

This little indie comedy is another Movie I’d Never Heard Of, but as it often seems to turn out, it’s also a pretty good film. The protagonist is Dale Sweeney (David Allen Basche), a young man who hosts a middle-of-the-night call-in radio show on a small AM station in Florida. Dale’s callers are UFO nuts, conspiracy theorists, and all sorts of fringe weirdos, but that’s the focus of the program. It provides a forum for anybody to get their ideas out there, no matter how odd, and as Dale says, “I’ll believe you.”

Unfortunately, the station manager isn’t as sympathetic and wants to cancel Dale’s show. Then, a strange caller starts calling in every night at 1:13 and spouting what sounds like gibberish for five minutes. In order to save his radio show, Dale starts to hype the idea that the caller is really a space alien stranded on Earth and trying to communicate with his home planet. The ploy works, but then mysterious guys in black suits and sunglasses show up and start asking questions, and a wave of odd robberies hits the town, and things keep on getting weirder . . .

This movie is more whimsical than it is laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s smart and well-written, with a very nice twist about halfway through and another funny twist at the end. It also has the great Patrick Warburton in it and a supporting cast that includes comedy veterans like Fred Willard and Chris Elliott. I’LL BELIEVE YOU is an entertaining, very likable movie, and if you haven’t seen it (which is likely, given its low profile), it’s certainly well worth watching.

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