Written, directed, and produced by Brooklyn Nine-Nine alum Chelsea Peretti, First Time Female Director offers a glimpse into one woman’s opportunity to advance in her career with as little support as possible. Peretti also stars in her feature debut as Sam, a playwright who takes over the director role after her male counterpart gets fired for inappropriate behavior. With Sam having to prove herself at the theater, along with being subjected to the opinions and hesitations of her cast, her debut at the theater becomes more challenging than she originally thought. A mix of satire and mockumentary, First Time Female Director had the material to succeed, but the irksome humor overshadows its important messaging.
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There’s a unique perspective from which Peretti shares this story in First Time Female Director. While her character is having her first experience directing at the local Glendale theater, so is Peretti herself with her feature debut. It almost requires you to ask if this was Peretti’s experience (now or in the past): The lack of support, naysayers doubting her every move, very little confidence. I’m inclined to believe that she wouldn’t produce a nearly biographical film that is so on the nose, especially considering so many things in the film did not work. But someone out there has had a similar experience to Sam, which raises a greater issue about the lack of support provided to women for success.

This would have been an excellent theme to explore had the script maintained some type of focus. However, there seemed to have been a large push for comedy, silliness, and outlandish scenes masked as satire at the expense of making sound commentary and an appealing story. Of course, there’s a certain expectation in tone when discussing the theater and all that comes with it — big productions, embellished acting, colorful characters — all of which were included in First Time Female Director. But these elements of her feature overpower anything else she attempts to say about the female experience when it comes to opportunity. And unfortunately, it results in a frustrating watching experience.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Sam is in over her head as the theater director. She frequently changes her leadership style to influence individual coworkers, and there are times when her play begins to make little sense anymore. During these sequences, there’s a good film aching to break through as these moments criticize skill versus desire. Is Sam even a good playwright and director? Or, is the fact that she wasn’t even the artistic director’s (Andy Richter) third choice warranted? Exploring this other side of the argument — that Sam has not been set up for success versus being terrible for the job — would have introduced exciting layers to the script that it lacks due to forced comedy. Unfortunately, the entire film suffers for it, and it comes off as a plethora of unfunny sketches that overstay their welcome.

The one thing First Time Female Director does attempt to do right is offer a glimpse into the competitive nature within theater. Specifically, when Peretti’s character Sam sees her colleague (Xosha Roquemore) shine in her own production, that sends her on a downward spiral of confidence and mayhem, leading Sam to make last minute changes to an already funky script. However, this circumstance is also where Peretti’s feature fails to reach its potential on the commentary, especially when it comes after the rival play was produced by a Black woman. Instead of Sam finding her own voice, she borrows ideas from a woman of color but fails miserably. And unfortunately, nothing major comes from this exploration, adding to the long list of negatives from which the film already suffers.

As odd as it is to say, thanks to the film’s premise on theater productions, First Time Female Director runs like a stage play that doesn’t know when to bring down the curtains. Its endless, unfunny humor is tiresome and obnoxious, the commentary is short-lived, and jokes related to Sam’s unpreparedness are repetitive. Peretti tries her hardest to make these three elements of her feature debut the selling points (if the title couldn’t do it on its own), but they just aren’t properly executed enough to reach a broad audience. I’m sure this mockumentary-style feature will find its audience somewhere, but it is hard to get through.

First Time Female Director premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. The film is 97 minutes long and not yet rated.