I Used to Be Funny review, exploring a trauma

I Used to Be Funny is a Canadian film with Rachel Sennott as a stand up comic who works as a nanny for a teenage girl. The story is not told in linear order. Sometimes it’s hard to place events in time as it jumps back and forth.

I Used to Be Funny was written and directed by Ally Pankiw. When it begins we meet Sam (Rachel Sennott) who is depressed looking, never leaves the house, and seldom bathes. Her two roommates Paige (Sabrina Jalees) and Philip (Caleb Hearon) try to encourage her and cajole her into getting back into life. Both her roomies were gay, they were not a couple. They were all comics at the same comedy club. Sam used to have steady boyfriend, Noah (Ennis Esmer). She used to be funny, but there’s not much humor left in her.

Then we flash back to Sam applying for a job as a nanny for 12 year old Brooke (Olga Petsa). Brooke’s mom is ill. Her father Cameron (Jason Jones) needs help while her mother is in the hospital. Her aunt Jill (Dani Kind) is too far away to be there every day.

From there we jump back and forth in Sam’s life as the before and after of some trauma is explored. It’s pretty easy to guess what it was, but the film doesn’t reveal it explicitly until well into the third act.

We see how close Sam and Brooke became and what happened after Brooke’s mother died. While Sam is depressed in her friends’ apartment, she hears on the news that Brooke is missing. That brings her out of her darkness a bit and she goes looking for Brooke.

Rachel Sennott is excellent in showing Sam’s journey from comedy through trauma and back to a degree of normality again. She hits all the emotional notes needed to give power, humor, and drama to the story. You get a glimpse of her range in the trailer.

The film is streaming on Netflix.