The funniest movie of the summer, maybe the year: “In A World”.

Drama, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi. Easy peasy versus the rarest of masterpieces, the piece de resistance, the coolest high-wire act: a rip-roaringly good comedy. Well, lucky for you, there are some amazingly creative laughs out there this week with your name on them.

Run, don’t walk, to “In a World” which tells the story of a somewhat slacker, but oh-so-really-gorgeous-and-sharp young woman who tries, against all odds (and I doooo mean odds), to break into the all-male, omniscient, and deep-voiced world of movie trailer voiceovers.

Director/writer/co-producer/star Lake Bell on the set of “In A World”.

The film is quite autobiographical since its star, writer, director, and co-producer, the geographically named Lake Bell, has been trying for years to break into the male-dominated voiceover world. And fun fact (as Stephen Colbert would say): the movie’s title, “In A World”, alludes to the phrase coined and used repeatedly ad nauseam by real-life voiceover king Don LaFontaine who passed away in 2008 after making millions doing over 5,000 movie trailers.

She may be a multi-hyphenate newcomer, but Bell’s film scored out of the gate by winning Best Screenplay at the Sundance Film Festival. No real slacker, she.

Bell on the August 19-26, 2013 Double Issue (can you believe they called it that?!) of New York magazine in nothing by a fake tattoo applied by her husband, the celebrity tattoo artist Scott Campbell.

And proving her creative independence, after writing, directing, and starring in the coolest, funniest movie of the year, Bell posed on the cover of my new favorite periodical, New York magazine (check it out; only $40 for 42 home-delivered issues!), in nothing but a fake tattoo drawn by her husband, the said-to-be most famous tattoo artist in the world, Scott Campbell. Yeah, she goes her own way, Bebe, and she looks fantastic while she does it! By the way, for the curious, Lake reports she has only one tiny real tattoo.

Aside for the film aficionados: real 20-year voiceover artist and actor Fred Melamed plays Bell’s overbearing, egotistical father in the film. He is not willing to celebrate his daughter landing her first movie trailer job, instead he throws his hat in the ring to try to steal the job from her. Melamed is so believable in the role that I wanted to throttle him.

See one of the best Clarence Brown Theatre plays ever, “Noises Off”, catch it until September 22.

If you are lucky enough to live in Knoxville, K-town, Tennessee, shimmy on over to the Clarence Brown Theatre’s  production of Noises Off. This hilarious farce reminds me of the funniest Cary Grant movies that I have ever seen. It’s a play about doing a play that is soooo falling-down funny that by the second act my sides were hurting from laughing, and by the third act someone on stage actually falls down a flight a stairs–on purpose, and doesn’t actually kill himself! Phew!

Gail Rastorfer, David Kortemeier, and Katie Cunningham in “Noises Off”.

Noises Off is creative in ways I never could have imagined, and the cast is pristine and in their prime. Everyone shines, especially Kate Cunningham who plays Brooke, the not-so-bright blonde that comes off pretty canny to me as she steps delicately over the debris that litters the stage at critical junctures. I’d see this one again in a heartbeat.

The poster child for drinking lotsa pints!

Ok, for you lower-brow kings, check out the movie “The World’s End” which is much sharper and better than I expected. Simon Pegg of “Shawn of the Dead” fame returns again with another cast of lovable and not-so-lovable British hooligans. Funny, wise, stupid, and lotsa drinking of pints.

And, for those of you watching at home and wondering about the title of this post, I would love to take credit for the funniest lead-in this side of the railroad tracks (and we should know because, in the case of our backyard: A Train Runs Through It), bbbbuuuutttt my creative genius of a husband Kurt came up with this title. And let it never be said that I don’t give credit where credit is due! My husband has a gift for creativity, photography, intelligence, wit, and his exceedingly cute butt. Yeah, I said butt.

Signing off now; a lovely day awaits. Hey, settle down! One banana per monkey, please!

~ Anna, 9/13/2013 (Friday the Thirteenth of September, not that I am superstitious)