Arts & Entertainment | How To Lose Friends and Alienate People (MA) |
 HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE (MA)
Starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten DunstDirected by Robert B. Weide London’s Sidney Young is a savage reporter whose satirical magazine shakes celebrity by the scruff of the neck until ego begs for mercy. At least, that’s what he tells himself. Reality is a different story. Young’s zero-budget publication is on the verge of collapse while he is as star-struck by the industry as any fawning jobsworth. So when Young gets the call from New York, he’s as shocked as anyone. Opening salvos suggest that How To Lose Friends and Alienate People might rise above standard rom-com. It’s based on Toby Young’s fish-out-of-water memoirs but such hopes quickly evaporate leaving Pegg to thrash around like said gasping fish until convention takes hold and he stops struggling. If The Devil Wears Prada shagged Run Fatboy Run, this would be their bastard child and given the limitations of the gene pool, hopes don’t run high. How much fun you’ll have rests entirely on how much enthusiasm you still contain for Pegg’s tiring routine while the film plays out its brainless hand. Consider an early gag in which a pig urinates on a woman. It’s about as far from the harsh wit of Young’s book as slapstick can get, and the film stays there. |