Amanda Peet Shines in Intimate Indie Romcom

On Thursday night, Andrew Saffir’s Cinema Society hosted a screening of the charming new indie feature ‘Fantasy Life,’ written by, directed by, and starring Matthew Shear. The film is about a middle aged man named Sam (Shear) who starts nannying for his therapist’s daughter-in-law (Amanda Peet) and her family after suffering a very public panic attack. It’s a sweet movie. A gentle comedy full of small and very real-feeling dramas. A romcom, of sorts, but one firmly grounded in reality.

Matthew Shear, Amanda Peet (BFA)

Peet’s character, Dianne, is an out-of-work actor who was a big deal in the 2000s, but hasn’t really worked since. She wants to get back into it, and she’s got the goods — as she demonstrates during an all-too-real self-tape audition scene where she manages to give real emotion and gravitas to a trashy sci-fi script she’s been sent my her agent — but depression and self-defeat derail her at every turn. Her husband — played beautifully by Alessandro Nivola — is a fading star in his own right and the two are on uncertain terms, parting ways while he goes on tour with a band in Australia and leaving Peet to bond with Shear as he cares for the couple’s three very sassy young daughters.

Cast and crew of Fantasy Life (BFA)

The screening took place at the Angelika Film Center in NoHo and was followed by a Q&A with Shear, Peet, and veteran New York actor Andrea Martin, who played Peet’s mother in the film. After the screening, people made their way to the afterparty at DejaVu in the West Village.

Guests included Peter Dinklage, Diane Lane, Donovan Colan (Your Friends & Neighbors), Helena Christensen, Lena Hall (Your Friends & Neighbors), Holt McCallany (Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning), Mark Tallman (Your Friends & Neighbors), Miriam Silverman (Your Friends & Neighbors), Candace Bushnell, Geneva Carr (Bull), Joseph Cross (Big Little Lies), Catherine Curtin (Stranger Things), Brian Geraghty (1923), Dylan Gelula (Hacks), Grace Johnson, Bianca Lawson (Queen Sugar), Emma Myles (Orange is the New Black), Laila Robins (The Boys, The Walking Dead), Madeline Weinstein (Between the Temples, Mare of Easttown), Sunrise Ruffalo, Devon Bostick (The Studio), Corina Bradley (Hotel Cocaine), Sophie Brooks, Christian Coulson (The Beauty), Gabe Fazio (I Know This Much is True), Seth Herzog (The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), Rock Kohli (Inside Amy Schumer), Luke Slattery (New Amsterdam), Patrick Alwyn, Michael Bonini (NCIS), Jacqueline Byers (Roadies), Jenna Leigh Green, Sarah Himadeh (The Last of Us), Cameron Moir, Mariah Strongin (And Just Like That…), Vicci Martinez (Orange is the New Black), Emily Tarver (Orange is the New Black), Corey Mach (Merrily We Roll Along), Peter Davis, Alex Lundqvist, Coco Mitchell, Maye Musk, Lucila Sola, Baris Koroglu, Tara Westwood (Law & Order), Daniel Benedict, and Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir.

Check out more pics from the evening below.