Writer Annabelle Gurwitch's book FIRED! is brought to the screen in this celebrity-packed testament to the benefits of losing your job. Gurwitch's impetus to look into the experience of getting fired came after Woody Allen gave her the boot from an off-Broadway play called WRITER'S BLOCK, and now she hands the baton to filmmakers Chris Bradley and Kyle LeBranche, who further her efforts by talking to a number of people about their dismissals. Stars such as David Cross (MR. SHOW), Sarah Silverman (JESUS IS MAGIC), Jeff Garlin (CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM), Fred Willard (BEST IN SHOW), and Harry Shearer (THIS IS SPINAL TAP) provide amusing anecdotes as the directors flash back and forth between their reminiscences and scenes from the stage play Gurwitch developed on the same subject. Non-famous people provide equally illuminating thoughts, even inducing memories of Michael Moore's 1989 documentary ROGER AND ME, as workers at a General Motors plant expound on their fears about potential job loss. But the film never dwells on serious matters for too long, and it soon becomes apparent that its disparate subjects are united in the feeling that getting fired isn't so bad as long as you hold on to your sense of humor--actor Tate Donovan even turns his experiences into a masterly piece of puppet theater. A witty and enjoyable film about a subject that, for most people, is anything but funny, FIRED! could be just the tonic any newly unemployed person needs.