Community alums are sticking with uncomfortable roles

Polygon

"When members of the Greendale Community College class of 2015 stars in movies, they do their best to stay unusually prickly, uncomfortable, and weird," says Jesse Hassenger, pointing to new films starring Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie and Danny Pudi. Hassenger adds: "This development wasn’t necessarily easy to predict back when Community was airing. While the show generally approached its broader subjects of social support and togetherness with gratifying thorniness, ambition, and complexity, its tone is ultimately pretty sweet, in part because of the likable cast. It’s easy to picture Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, or Yvette Nicole Brown jumping over to romantic comedies or family films, and in a few cases, that’s happened: Brie made the lovely (though little-seen) rom-com Sleeping with Other People, while Pudi and Brown have taken plenty of family-friendly voiceover gigs. But as their careers have progressed, especially into leading roles, it’s become increasingly clear that the Community gang shares an affinity for difficult, isolated characters."