Frances (Kaley Wheless, The Highwaymen), snarky and affectless, has a lump of a husband, one child, a clueless mother, and a job as a substitute teacher in North Platte, Nebraska. Three years into her marriage, strangely enough, she finds herself dissatisfied. How does she deal with this anomie? In the most ill-advised way possible: A student in biology class catches her eye, she has an affair (donning her old cheerleading outfit as bait), and her life quickly takes a left turn for the worse. The rest of Bob Byington's very arch, very polarizing comedy deals with Frances' downward spiral: arrest, trial, jail time, divorce, probation, court-ordered group therapy, community service, North Platte's reaction, and her unwelcome celebrity, sarcasm intact—all mined for comic possibilities. -SIFF
Bob Byington, making his third appearance at SF IndieFest (Harmony and Me 2009; RSO [Registered Sex Offender] 2008) assembles the exact right ensemble for the film's bone-dry tone, including Martin Starr ("Silicon Valley"), David Krumholtz ("The Deuce"), and Bill Wise (Support the Girls), plus laconic narration courtesy of—who else?—Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation").