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Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

post #1 of 6
3/15/10 at 12:51am
Thread Starter 
Took a blind shot in the dark with this through Netflix Instant, based solely on premise, cast, and director.

I'm almost a little sad the guy who wrote and directed this is running off to play Captain fucking America. Knowing only cursory details about the book, this cannot have been easy to adapt, nor could it have been easy to get this particular cast together and get them this emotionally bare. Comes dangerously close to becoming The Penis Monologues at times, and good Lord, the fact that the main character keeps an almost Vulcan composure during Krasinski's monologue makes you want to smack her, which, may very well be the point, but still. Nevertheless, pretty damned effective, fascinating stuff here.
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post #2 of 6
3/15/10 at 6:41pm
FYI - The book is a bunch of short stories, only some of which are interviews, and the interviews don't have a framing device - they're just presented as answers to an unseen interviewer (whose questions aren't given, but can generally be inferred from context). I think Krasinski also threw in a few bits from the book's non-interview stories, but I can't remember which.

I admired the attempt, but the movie just didn't quite work for me. I think it was the right choice to insert a framing device to unite the interviews, but the scenes that work best are directly lifted from the book, which makes the story of the ostensible main character seem less important and interesting than it probably should be. In other words, the best parts are just well-delivered monologues (and dialogue, in some cases) directly from the book.
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post #3 of 6
3/15/10 at 6:50pm
Thread Starter 
I could've dealt with this without her, frankly. Halfway through, I realized the thing was reminding me a lot of Waking Life, a movie I adore while realizing its pretty much just a series of interviews. And Wiggins' story doesnt get interesting till whenever you have the epiphany that he's dead or dying. But again, having her just be impassive while Krasinski pours himself into her makes you downright resent her presence, which doesnt help the fact that she feels like she doesnt need to be there.
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post #4 of 6
3/15/10 at 7:07pm
Yeah, it hurts that sequence in particular, because there's obviously a personal connection there. That monologue has a vastly different effect in the book because it's directed to an anonymous, probably impartial, party.

In the context of the film, this segment almost demanded to be more of a dialogue, but that would obviously require significant changes to the text, and Krasinski, a big David Foster Wallace fan by all accounts, seems pretty concerned with staying faithful to the language of the source material.
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post #5 of 6
3/18/10 at 11:15pm
The movie is best watched over a few different sessions. It's a bunch of mini-short films haphazardly strung together into a feature. The reason to watch this is for the dialogue. I've never read any Wallace, despite reading about him on this site, and now I'm looking forward to picking up some of his books.
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post #6 of 6
3/18/10 at 11:28pm
Forgot to add - this movie seems almost undirected. I have the suspicion these actors, many of whom are well-known professionals, were offered these roles and then performed them almost automatically, having already known the material, because they are David Foster Wallace fans. There's little obvious meddling by Krasinski in the proceedings; he seems to point his camera at them, and they subsequently act - as shot with as little embellishment by the director as possible. Embellishment like strange editing decisions, odd camera angles, surprising musical choices - anything.
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