I wish I didn't have to be this guy. I wish I could be nicer. I wish I could fall in line with the legions of fans who dig this movie's aimless plot, poorly developed characters, banal dialogue, gratuitous low humor and overall feeling of pretentiousness. I wish wish wish that this was the case. Unfortunately, I have a human brain and can tell the difference between dirty water and champagne. This is, unquestionably, a very bad movie.
It's a movie based on a novel about a writer who's writing about himself. Please. Think back to how many pseudo-independent, underdog, art-house, pretentious as all git out flicks you've seen about writers. It's self-indulgent, that's what it is. Someone needs to tell these writers who are writing these movies about writers that, to paraphrase Watterson, saying something isn't the same as being understood. You're just muttering to yourself. That's what this movie is. Probably the author needed to write it for his own reasons, but did the rest of us really have to hear this story? The plot goes nowhere. It's a formulaic repetition of self-destructive behavior. They're driving, they're drinking wine, they're talking to a girl, hey! Something weird just happened! Maybe now the movie will get interest--nope. Driving. Drinking. Talking. The characters are flat and unengaging. Giamati's Miles is a waste of this man's obvious talent and, for the love of all things wonderful in life, who the hell puts Thomas Hayden Church in a movie? Explain it to me someone! Besides the fact that his character makes absolutely no sense and has ZERO redeeming features, he plays it in the same slack-jawed monotone that served him well as Lowell on "Wings" and nothing else in his career.
If you're a self-absorbed, know-it-all, pretentious snob who thinks he's the smartest thing in the universe, by all means watch this film. If you're instead, you know, someone with taste who likes, what do you call em? GOOD movies, join the rest of us in trying to work out how this piece of garbage beat out "Eternal Sunshine," "Ray," "The Incredibles," and "Phantom of the Opera" for the best musical or comedy Golden Globe.
It's a movie based on a novel about a writer who's writing about himself. Please. Think back to how many pseudo-independent, underdog, art-house, pretentious as all git out flicks you've seen about writers. It's self-indulgent, that's what it is. Someone needs to tell these writers who are writing these movies about writers that, to paraphrase Watterson, saying something isn't the same as being understood. You're just muttering to yourself. That's what this movie is. Probably the author needed to write it for his own reasons, but did the rest of us really have to hear this story? The plot goes nowhere. It's a formulaic repetition of self-destructive behavior. They're driving, they're drinking wine, they're talking to a girl, hey! Something weird just happened! Maybe now the movie will get interest--nope. Driving. Drinking. Talking. The characters are flat and unengaging. Giamati's Miles is a waste of this man's obvious talent and, for the love of all things wonderful in life, who the hell puts Thomas Hayden Church in a movie? Explain it to me someone! Besides the fact that his character makes absolutely no sense and has ZERO redeeming features, he plays it in the same slack-jawed monotone that served him well as Lowell on "Wings" and nothing else in his career.
If you're a self-absorbed, know-it-all, pretentious snob who thinks he's the smartest thing in the universe, by all means watch this film. If you're instead, you know, someone with taste who likes, what do you call em? GOOD movies, join the rest of us in trying to work out how this piece of garbage beat out "Eternal Sunshine," "Ray," "The Incredibles," and "Phantom of the Opera" for the best musical or comedy Golden Globe.