I had very high hopes for this film, going from its trailer, and it was great for at least the first half. Unfortunately, somewhere around that point the "vision" of the film sort of got lost and way too much time was spent in this one long stand-up gig. By the time the movie was over (and was it over? it had a very long exit and the lights never came up in the theater even after about 5-10 minutes of blank screen & silence) I felt like she should have had 2-3 more song things and perhaps less stand-up (although, more songs would have broken up that). Also, the film, which started out amazingly dream-like got awfully linear by the end. The songs were the best part of the movie ... each featuring Sarah in some outfit/scenario ranging from a fundy preacher to a lounge diva, to a 60's acid pop queen (singing the hilarious "I Love You More Than" song) to a highschool girl at her grandmother's nursing home (singing "You'll Be Dead Soon!" ... probably the funniest bit in the film).
The "premise" of the film was Sarah putting together a show ... based on a lie she tells to two firends (who she's hanging with at the beginning of the movie telling her how fabulously their careers are going) ... the "dream sequencing" starts as soon as she leaves and gets in her car, and starts in on the first several songs. The best parts are in this beginning when things are working up to the show, which then sort of comes out of nowhere ("how does a person get to be what they are? how does one person end up a comic and another a lawyer? ... and suddenly she's on stage). The most off-putting parts of the film are the "context" pieces where she's dealing with her firends or manager, where she acts like a total bitch/primadonna, the film ending after she totally ices out her friends (from the beginning of the film) and then starts making out with her reflection in the mirror. It seems like she's trying to wrap some "social commentary" about show biz around all the other stuff in the film, but I felt it confused things more. There are pretty much three things going on in the film, the "outside" story, the "stand-up" content, and the "song skits", of these the latter are gems, and it would have been better if she'd been able to close the film in a way that gave "closure" to its opening.
Anyway, it's well worth seeing just for the songs, and of course some of the jokes are killers (the very dirty one at the very start of the trailer is especialy good!), I just wish it were better as a whole movie!