Cristin Milioti is persuasive when comedy gives way to something darker, keeping the character worth caring about through the change. We rate that steadiness, though Buddy shows how much she still needs from the writing.
Fi1m perspective
In Buddy (2026), Cristin Milioti has to make Grace matter while a murderous unicorn supplies the spectacle. We cared more than we expected to, because she and Delaney Quinn, as Freddy, keep the gore from becoming the only attraction. That is a useful quality in an actor so often cast in comedy with a darker side. Milioti gives us a reason to take the characters seriously, even when their surroundings make that an unreasonable request.
A lead in the Broadway musical Once (2011) preceded wider recognition as Tracy McConnell in How I Met Your Mother (2013–2014). It would be easy to describe the later career as a comic actor learning to be serious, but Palm Springs (2020) makes that too tidy. Its Sarah Wilder allows lightness and darker feeling to coexist in a time-loop comedy. Sofia Falcone in The Penguin (2024) gives greater prominence to Milioti's intensity. We do not need to dismiss the comedy to value that turn.
Buddy is also a useful limit on the praise. Casper Kelly and fellow writer Jamie King care about the children, and Milioti and Quinn help that kindness survive the ugliness of the comedy. The trouble comes when the more earnest writing asks for a change of feeling that the surrounding absurdity has not always prepared. We can believe in a performance and still feel the film trying too hard to move us. Milioti helps keep the characters worth our attention, but she cannot supply the preparation that the script has missed.
We would like to see her given more parts that let her be funny without requiring her to be agreeable. Her ability to turn charm into unease is worth giving a writer time to develop. Start with Palm Springs; save Buddy for an evening when a good performance can excuse some untidy writing.
Biography
Cristin Milioti is an American actress. She was born on 16 August 1985 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and attended Drew University.
She began her career with supporting roles in television, including Catherine Sacrimoni in The Sopranos (2006–2007). On stage she appeared in the Broadway musical Once (2011–2013), for which she won a Grammy Award and received a Tony Award nomination. Her screen work includes the role of Tracy McConnell in How I Met Your Mother (2013–2014), Teresa Petrillo in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Sarah in Palm Springs (2020), Betsy Solverson in Fargo (2015) and Sofia Falcone in The Penguin (2024).
Milioti plays Grace in the 2026 film Buddy.
