Baskets

With comedian Louis CK in the director's chair, it's no surprise that this outing is like his own self-named show: deadpan, ironic, and by turns amusing and bleak. Chip Baskets is a ridiculous figure, to be sure -- actually wanting to be a French clown? Any American could tell you how that's going to play here -- but played sympathetically by Galifianakis and given backstory and motivations viewers can relate to, he comes off as a character you can laugh with and not at. Not that there is a ton of guffawing here -- the chuckles are more of the rueful and knowing variety than thigh-slappers. Still, fans of that kind of (sometimes uncomfortable) humor will enjoy watching Chip explain to Martha why her dress looks like a shower curtain and Chip's mom Mrs. Baskets (played in a surprisingly effective bit of stunt casting by venerable comic Anderson) extoll the virtues of her adopted second set of twin sons over her bio-sons. It's exactly what you'd expect of both Galifianakis (a lovable loser) and CK (who enjoys evoking conflicted laughter), so if you like that kind of thing, you'll like this particular thing.