There's no question that getting fired, canned, axed, rif'ed, or booted SUCKS. We were back at one of our favorite SF theaters, the Roxie, for the SF debut of Annabelle Gurwitch's at Docfest on Friday night. It turns out that there were so many eager sympathizers, a second show had to be added. We stood in line near Gurwitch, and Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary, who has a cameo in the film and whom one of our friends kindly pointed out to us, while we waited somewhat anxiously for San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi to wrap up the Q&A in his recent documentary, The Slanted Screen (it seemed like it took forever).

Fired! was inspired by Gurwitch’s (who you may remember her from Seinfeld and/or TBS’s Dinner and a Movie) experience getting laid off from a Woody Allen play. The first half of the film was the most entertaining, watching plucky, sarcastic Gurwitch interview other Hollywood celebs about their experiences getting canned. Anyone who’s had a job in retail or the food service industry can clearly relate. We also loved Gurwitch’s numerous reminders that Woody canned her because she was “retarded.” (We still find it amusing even after learning at the post-film Q&A that Gurwitch’s firing scene was staged and that she was really canned by a friend of hers and member of Woody’s staff).

The second half of the film, in which Gurwitch immerses herself among blue collar auto workers in Michigan, didn’t quite work for us. It was like Gurwitch changed focus midstream, and the obvious disconnect between a celeb fired from a play and the folks in Michigan whose livelihoods depend on their jobs in the auto industry, was never quite bridged by Gurwitch’s humor or her more serious attempts to make a point regarding the current threats faced by the American workforce.

SFist Wendy, contributing.

Fired!