The Pallbearer

The Pallbearer (1996) is an American romantic comedy directed by Matt Reeves — watch it online on iFILM. David Schwimmer stars alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Barbara Hershey, and Toni Collette.

Tom Thompson graduates college with no plan and moves back home. Then a stranger calls: her son Bill has died, and she is certain Tom was Bill's closest friend. Tom has no idea who Bill is. He agrees to give the eulogy anyway — a decision that makes everything worse. The mystery mother turns out to be far more than grieving, the funeral turns into a spectacle, and Julie DeMarco, the girl Tom has carried a crush on since high school, reappears at precisely the wrong moment.

This was Matt Reeves's feature debut, years before Cloverfield and the Planet of the Apes trilogy. The film has the rhythm of a Woody Allen comedy of embarrassment, played straight enough that the awkwardness actually lands. Stream The Pallbearer (1996) online on iFILM.