Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 18
  2. Negative: 1 out of 18
  1. 75
    It is a minor movie, but a big-time minor movie...If there is such a thing as a must-see three-star movie, here it is.
  2. Reviewed by: Sid Smith
    If you’re a Chicagoan, if you have just a smidgen of interest in the city’s arts scene and if you’ve been around a while, there’s no way to be objective about I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.
  3. 75
  4. Reviewed by: Gregory Kirschling
    A wry movie that, packed with his well-known friends and scored intermittently to bouncy accordion music, plays like a softer episode of "Curb."
  5. Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    May be one of the wisest studies of urban loneliness since Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty."
  6. Reviewed by: Matt Zoller Seitz
    Laid back and affectionate, “Cheese” is the movie version of a dear friend you could spend all day with.
  7. Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    Feels more like a series of skits than a movie, though it does tie up several plot threads in a lyrical last scene worthy of vintage Woody Allen.
  8. The film is visually bland and hits a few comic dead ends, but there's an element of pathos that allows us to believe in the plight of the fictional James.
  9. 67
    Unassuming and sweet-natured, and Garlin earns a lot of goodwill with his off-the-cuff wisecracks.
  10. 63
    Cheese is written with plenty of sophisticated wit, but it is not quite convincing as a movie.
  11. Garlin, like Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine in "Marty," is good company, even when his out-of-control eating and self-loathing threaten to overwhelm him.
  12. Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    None of it really adds up to much but it's smart, low-key fun -- terrible title and dangling preposition notwithstanding.
  13. Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    James and Beth have fun in a grocery store pretending to be different characters meeting in the aisles. As they learn, sometimes the moment works, sometimes it doesn't. The same can be said for this unfailingly modest film.
  14. Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    Never completely takes off, yet somewhat overestimates the surrounding zaniness. Still, any opportunity to witness the improvisatory skills of Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt and Amy Sedaris should not be missed.
  15. Reviewed by: John Maynard
    The entire film carries a whiff of "vanity project," with several of Garlin's comedic buddies reporting for duty.
  16. The story ultimately lands in incoherence; but the cameos and local details, and even some of the gags, keep it perky.
  17. Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Dec 21, 2010
    Having been a huge Jeff Garlin fan for years, especially after seeing him on Curb Your Enthusiasm, I was surprised to see this little self-written and self-directed nugget from him and a similar band of improv's best in Sarah Silverman, Amy Sedaris, Richard Kind, Dan Castellaneta and quite possibly my favorite overall entertainer, Bonnie Hunt. The premise of the movie is real and precious. Knowing that he wrote this and the fact that his character's acting background seems very similar to his own acting background, I can't help but think this was rooted at some real-life feelings and experiences. It's an adorable, sometimes sad, view of love later in life. The ending was a bit sudden and took me off guard, but it was precious nonetheless. Full Review »
  2. ChadS.
    Apr 18, 2008
    Before Beth(Sarah Silverman) agrees to sleep with James (Jeff Garlin), she insists that the Second City comedian throw her out of his apartment. Beth is adamant. And then a fleeting thought: this is just like Dorothy Vallens(Isabella Rosselini) in "Blue Velvet", when she orders Jeffrey Beaumont(Kyle McLachlan) to hit her. Echoes of Woody Allen is easy to detect in "I Want Somebody to Eat Cheese With", in particular, the final scene between Garlin and Silverman, which is a correction of sorts to the face-to-face meeting that never happened between Woody Allen and Mariel Hemmingway in "Manhattan", since this time, the right heart is broken. Or maybe, nebbish guys are just hotter than fat guys. But that's beside the point. "I Want Somebody to Eat Cheese With" suggests what a romantic-comedy directed by David Lynch might look like. Instead of meet cute, Jeff and Beth meet strange, in an ice cream parlour, which plays like a scene straight out of "Twin Peaks"(the series, not "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me"). And then there's the surreal casting behind "Marty", the remake of the Ernest Borgnine film that James wanted to star in. In real life, there's only one "Marty", and that's filmmaker Martin Scorsese. James is "The King of Comedy". When he sleeps with Beth, the line that Robert DeNiro(as Rupert Pupkin) delivers in the story's denouement is sort of befitting here, which went like this: "But I figure it this way: better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime." James might not be "The King of Comedy", but he certainly qualifies to be the "King of Pain". The film's tone is strange for a comedy. I think it's intentional. Full Review »
  3. XavierP.
    Sep 22, 2007
    Just alright movie. Something's missing. Could have been great.