Michael Bacall
Wally Spivak
Overview
A self-loathing, failed Eastside novelist living in the ‘hipster’ neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles is shocked to find himself falling in love with everything he hates, including a simple All-American blonde girl from the Westside.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
5 min readThe Hipster’s Dilemma: When Self-Loathing Meets the Girl Next Door
I’ll admit it: I went into Spivak expecting a train wreck. A 91-minute comedy about a self-loathing novelist in Echo Park, directed by two people I’d never heard of, with a TMDB score hovering just above "why does this exist?"—it sounded like the kind of movie that gets made when someone mistakes a bad breakup for artistic inspiration. And yet, here I am, still turning it over in my head days later.
Not because it’s good, exactly, but because it’s interesting. Messy, uneven, occasionally tone-deaf, but interesting in the way a drunk friend’s late-night confession is interesting: you’re not sure you believe it, but you can’t look away.
The film follows Jake Spivak (Michael Bacall), a failed novelist who’s spent so long cultivating his own misery that he’s forgotten how to function without it. He’s the kind of guy who wears his cynicism like a badge of honor, sneering at the "basic" Westside of Los Angeles while nursing a quiet terror that he might actually be the basic one. His life is a carefully curated performance of disillusionment—until he meets Sarah (Maggie Lawson), a sunny, all-American blonde who works in marketing and, horrifyingly, seems to like him.
The premise is simple: what happens when the guy who’s built his identity on hating everything suddenly finds himself falling for the very thing he claims to despise?
It’s a question that should resonate, especially in a city like Los Angeles, where irony is a second language and authenticity is a currency. But Spivak struggles to find the right tone for its own material. Is it a sharp satire of hipster culture, or is it a love letter to the very pretensions it mocks?
The film can’t quite decide, and that indecision seeps into every frame. One minute, it’s skewering Jake’s performative nihilism with the precision of a scalpel; the next, it’s indulging in the same kind of self-satisfied navel-gazing it claims to critique. The result is a movie that feels like it’s constantly winking at the audience, unsure whether it wants to be the smartest person in the room or the one laughing at the smartest person in the room.
Audience Opinions
Broad evidence
Audience 5.7/10
"A quirky indie comedy with moments of charm but struggles to stand out due to its predictable plot and uneven execution."
Viewers appreciate the film's offbeat humor and the lead performance by Michael Bacall, which adds a layer of relatability to the struggling writer protagonist. However, the story feels overly familiar, with many noting that the romantic and comedic beats follow well-worn tropes. latestnetflix.com's take is that the supporting cast, while competent, doesn’t leave a lasting impression, and the film’s pacing occasionally drags, making it feel longer than its runtime.
What viewers praise
- Lead performance Michael Bacall’s portrayal of the self-loathing writer Wally Spivak resonates with audiences, bringing authenticity and humor to the role.
- Offbeat humor The film’s quirky and dry humor lands well with those who enjoy indie comedies with a more subdued, character-driven tone.
- Relatable protagonist Wally Spivak’s struggles as a failing writer in a hipster neighborhood strike a chord with viewers who appreciate flawed, relatable characters.
Common complaints
- Predictable plot The story follows a formulaic romantic-comedy structure, with few surprises for audiences familiar with the genre.
- Uneven pacing Some scenes drag, particularly in the middle act, making the film feel longer and less engaging than it could be.
- Thin supporting cast While the supporting actors are competent, none of them leave a strong impression, making the world feel underdeveloped.
- Lacks originality The film’s premise and execution feel derivative, offering little that hasn’t been seen in other indie comedies.
Recommended for
Indie comedy fans Michael Bacall admirers Fans of character-driven stories Those who enjoy dry humor Struggling artist narratives
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsThe Scott Pilgrim writer cast himself as a novelist who cannot finish a book.
In August 2016, The Tracking Board flagged Spivak as a new feature from Adam Larson Broder and Anthony Abrams, the pair who made Pumpkin in 2002. First names on the call sheet were Rob Kazinsky and Maggie Lawson. The logline was a blocked writer who befriends an engaged couple and has his outlook rearranged. Production sat at BN Films and Super Crispy Entertainment, Andrea Sperling's company. Sperling had already produced Pumpkin for the same directors. latestnetflix.com's take is that Sixteen years later they went back to Los Angeles and asked a working screenwriter to play the guy who cannot get published.
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Michael Bacall got the title role. He co-wrote Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with Edgar Wright, then 21 Jump Street and Project X, and he still acts. Wright has said Bacall pitched Scott Pilgrim by performing the entire movie in the room. On this shoot he is Wally Spivak, an unpublished Eastside novelist in gentrifying Echo Park who falls for the Westside life he claims to hate. Michael Cera, who played Scott, turns up as Robby LeBeau. The trailer bills him as Wally's friend and his nemesis in the same breath. Mark Webber, Stephen Stills in that 2010 film, is Jesse. Nobody sold it as a reunion. It just sits there for anyone who still owns the DVD. , ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMmJEdik8qo
Lawson, Juliet on Psych, is Jeanine Mulholland. Kazinsky, of True Blood and Pacific Rim, is Chuck, the fiance. Elden Henson, Foggy Nelson on Daredevil, is Kevin. Ahna O'Reilly and Chloe Wepper fill the friend circle. Phil Burgers, the physical comic who performs as Dr. Brown, plays Mark Stein. Kevin Farley, Chris Farley's brother, is an uncredited club patron. IMDb lists a $1 million estimated budget, a 91-minute runtime, and a camera reflection in a hotel window as a goof. Filmweb has the shoot in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Tim Suhrstedt, who photographed Little Miss Sunshine and Office Space, is the DP. Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats wrote the score. Rotten Tomatoes puts Echo Parked Productions on the company line. , , ,
Netflix put the film up on 11 May 2018. Rotten Tomatoes dates the stream to the 12th. The title number is 80117736. Zero critic reviews on the Tomatometer. Audience notes call it a hidden gem and a fable more than a report from the neighborhood. The official trailer still lives on a YouTube channel with a handful of subscribers. Bacall later executive-produced Scott Pilgrim Takes Off for the same streamer. Spivak stayed the little Echo Park comedy where the man who wrote the video-game brawler played a man who cannot get a chapter out the door. , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.