Sarah Silverman can make a dry line land without appearing to work at it. We prefer that economy to the pursuit of offence; Maestro gives a useful glimpse of how much a small supporting performance can do.
Fi1m perspective
In Maestro (2023), Sarah Silverman delivers Shirley Bernstein’s dry lines without looking up. Bradley Cooper’s performance as Leonard Bernstein is full of carefully reconstructed details, from the lowered voice to the restless hands, and the effort keeps drawing our attention. We laughed at Silverman’s refusal to make an occasion of Shirley’s lines; she lets their dryness do the work. The contrast makes her small contribution especially welcome.
The supporting film parts offer a different measure of her usefulness. She plays Brenda in There’s Something About Mary (1998), an early mainstream comedy role, and Patty Di Marco in School of Rock (2003). We like the former’s cheerful indecency, with reservations about its slack middle, but its biggest laughs come from Ben Stiller’s discomfort and Cameron Diaz’s ease. It is worth an evening.
Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (2005) helped define her stage persona: the naïve or arrogant speaker who delivers offensive material deadpan. She then created and starred in The Sarah Silverman Program (2007–2010). We are less persuaded by the appetite for taboo subjects than by the control of the delivery. When the offence supplies the whole surprise, there is too little left for the performance to do.
Animation and drama have since given her work beyond that persona. She voices Vanellope von Schweetz in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), and I Smile Back (2015) takes her into independent drama. She has continued to act alongside stand-up, so the dramatic work should not be treated as a permanent change of direction.
The restraint in Maestro is what we would like filmmakers to use more often. Cooper gets a welcome dryness from Silverman, even while his own performance remains too visibly worked at, and Carey Mulligan is still the film’s reason to watch. Silverman makes her contribution without interrupting the film to insist on it. We would welcome a larger part that gives her delivery this much room.
Biography
Sarah Silverman is an American comedian, actress and writer. Born on 1 December 1970 in Bedford, New Hampshire, she began her career as a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live.
She created and starred in the Comedy Central series The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010. Her film credits include There's Something About Mary (1998), The School of Rock (2003), Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and its sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), in which she voiced Vanellope von Schweetz, and Don't Look Up (2021). She appeared as Shirley Bernstein in Maestro (2023).
Silverman has won two Primetime Emmy Awards. She published the autobiography The Bedwetter in 2010 and hosted the talk show I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman from 2017 to 2018.
