Poop Talk

Kumail Nanjiani spent part of his childhood convinced that if he could just calibrate his meals down to the exact right portion, his body would absorb every calorie and he would never have to poop again. That quiet, specific neurosis gives this project its best moment.

Streaming platforms frequently file this under stand-up, but it is actually a 68-minute documentary directed by Aaron N. Feldman and executive produced by the Sklar Brothers. The setup borrows the talking-head structure of The Aristocrats, sitting roughly fifty comics down in front of plain backdrops and the brick wall of the Hollywood Improv to talk about digestion, public stalls, and bodily disasters.

Nanjiani received top billing largely because of where his career sat in 2017: Silicon Valley was running on HBO, and The Big Sick had turned him into an Oscar-nominated screenwriter. His contribution is brief, sharing screen time with Nicole Byer, Pete Holmes, Rob Corddry, Nikki Glaser, and Dr. Drew Pinsky.

Reviews were lukewarm. Critics noted that the conversational conceit wore thin well before the hour mark, functioning better as isolated digital clips than a feature-length film.