Kate Berlant

In the agency meeting in Dream Scenario (2023), a soft drink’s place inside a dream receives serious professional consideration. Berlant’s Mary runs the agency alongside Michael Cera’s character, and both want to sell Paul’s face. We laughed because the pitch is delivered as though it were entirely reasonable. This is a good setting for her jargon-spouting confidence. Kristoffer Borgli’s film loses sharpness when it starts explaining itself, but the meeting contains its best dialogue.

Her early film work includes Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018), in which she plays Diana DeBauchery. Berlant’s smarmy assurance and precise timing fit Riley’s satire, which we rate above Dream Scenario despite its tendency to become overcrowded. LaKeith Stanfield supplies the calmly bemused centre; Berlant works in a more exaggerated manner. A small appearance in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) continued that supporting work.

Kate (2022), the one-woman show she wrote and performed under Bo Burnham’s direction, gives a clearer indication of her interests. It examines ambition and performance, with the performer herself available for scrutiny. Her sketch collaborations with John Early also parody self-regard and passive aggression, habits that help explain why those corporate characters suit her. The connection matters when we watch the film roles: an exaggerated professional manner is funny because we recognise how hard someone is working to maintain it, and how much cooperation they expect from everyone listening.

There is a limit to what we can claim from these film roles. They show precise timing and an appetite for exaggeration, but they do not tell us how she would carry a whole film. We would welcome a part that lets the confident manner slip and gives her time to show what follows. Start with Sorry to Bother You, where the film around her is worth the evening too.