Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
2009 Directed by John Krasinski
Synopsis
After her boyfriend mysteriously leaves her with little explanation, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at a prestigious East Coast university Sara Quinn is left looking for answers as to what went wrong.
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Based on a short story collection of the same name by David Foster Wallace, this film is infuriatingly aimless and preachy. John Krasinski never figures out what he really wants to be about so instead he just jumps from one ambiguous subject to the next. Shot like a documentary, it goes for the feeling that we are just following the camera around as it captures various men talking about how they perceive women, sex, relationships as well as just about every other topic you can imagine. Now that I know it is based on a short story collection this thought doesn't make much sense, but all while watching it I keep thinking that it would be more interesting if they…
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A powerful film that asks some serious questions about men and woman. Laced with amazingly intense performances.
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A good attempt. Notice I said attempt. Krasinski wrote, directed and acted in the film. The writing for the most part was decent, but a few things he took directly from the book, verbatim, and didn't really work well in the film medium. The more I think about this, the more I think how ironic it is that most people clamor for monologues and such from books to be put in films verbatim and executed the same way. While it is technically possible, sometimes I don't think that's the best way to do. Certain phrasings and words are obviously written material and some words and ways of talking are obviously conversational. I say this because the ending monologue in the…
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Sometimes you get desperate trying to find interesting stuff in Netflix streaming and it doesn't end well.
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This might have made a really compelling stage show, and as it stands there’s some amazing monologues for guys here, but it’s not cinematic at all. David Foster Wallace’s writing is beautiful, and I question how much John Krasinski actually “adapted” it, but as a film, this just doesn’t really hold up. Great performances, just everything else is a little flat.
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A second watch-through of this film did me a lot of good. If you don't mind a dialogue-heavy experience, this film will probably appeal to you on some level. Some of the dialogue, however, (especially Krasinski's monologue near the end) comes across as a bit pretentious, rehearsed, and overly-scripted.
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Based on a short story collection of the same name by David Foster Wallace, this film is infuriatingly aimless and preachy. John Krasinski never figures out what he really wants to be about so instead he just jumps from one ambiguous subject to the next. Shot like a documentary, it goes for the feeling that we are just following the camera around as it captures various men talking about how they perceive women, sex, relationships as well as just about every other topic you can imagine. Now that I know it is based on a short story collection this thought doesn't make much sense, but all while watching it I keep thinking that it would be more interesting if they…
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The 1 1/2 star is for DFW's book, not the movie. If I think more or say anything else about the movie itself I'll have to lower the rating. This is not one of those the book is so much better than the movie reviews because the book cannot be translated into movies in the first place (and no one should have tried, Krasinski--finger wag--). 1.25
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I am often a sucker for quirky indy films. That admission aside, I really enjoyed this film. It is slow and difficult to follow at times and I'm still not sure if I understood it. But faults aside it is an interesting and well-written take on the psychology of male-female interaction. All in all, its not a thriller and many may find it boring. However, if you enjoy great dialog driven acting you should definitely give it a watch. It (probably) won't let you down.
P.S. Don't let the main character's subpar role discourage you. This film is about the supporting characters. "The hideous men" that the main character interacts with are where the treasures of this film are found.
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Stuck with these minds, in these bodies. Performances by Lester and Krasinski make the pain of being reminded of our prisons mostly worth it. The last interview is worth the film alone. I'd write more the last thing I want to do is write more about Wallace anywhere. B