I Used to Be Funny Rachel Sennott is a traumatized comic with little to laugh about in

Rachel Sennott is traumatized but funny as hell in I Used to Be Funny.

Entertainment Weekly can exclusively debut the trailer for the dark dramedy from writer and director Ally Pankiw (The Great, Black Mirror), making her feature film debut. Sennott plays Sam Cowell, an aspiring stand-up comic and au pair coping with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a sexual assault. She weighs whether or not to join the search for Brooke (Olga Petsa), a missing teenager she used to nanny.

Alternating between the past and present, Sam tries to recover from her trauma and get back on stage, but memories of Brooke make it difficult to ignore her disappearance.

“You’re not getting paid to worry about her anymore,” a pal informs Sam in the trailer. Regardless, she cares for the brooding teen. “Brooke is the one person who doesn’t pity me,” she says. “She hates me. It’s refreshing.”

The cast includes Jason Jones, Sabrina Jalees, Caleb Hearon, Ennis Esmer, and Dani Kind. The film, which premiered at last year’s SXSW Film Festival, explores trauma and recovery and the ways they affect the relationships and communities that shape us, per the synopsis.

“I wanted to explore what the ups and downs of recovery from trauma actually look like,” Pankiw said in a director’s statement. “It’s less often a tale of revenge or vengeance or pure devastation, but rather a slow, lifelong repairing of the relationships that shape us and a reclaiming of our own comedic voices and joy. This film is ultimately about how far and deep the fractures of trauma can reach after even one act of violence.”

Utopia

Sennott, best known for her roles in films Shiva Baby and Bodies Bodies Bodies, most recently starred in the comedy Bottoms (which she also co-wrote) and HBO series The Idol. She's set to play comedy writer and actress Rosie Shuster in the upcoming Saturday Night Live origin biopic SNL 1975.

I Used to Be Funny hits theaters in New York on June 7, L.A. on June 14, and on Digital June 18. Watch the trailer above.

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