How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)

Directed by Robert B. Weide. Starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson, Megan Fox, Miriam Margolyes, Bill Patterson, Max Minghella. [R]

Crass feature-length sitcom unconvincingly navigates the world of pop culture/celebrity-focused commentary magazines. Pegg is a coarse aspiring muckraker (and would-be satirist) who somehow “charms” his way into a job across the pond for a prestigious New York magazine, and proceeds to embitter nearly everyone he comes into contact with because of his cretinous personality. Alas, the filmmakers don’t even have the courage to follow that concept to its logical outcome, and instead it slowly transitions into a trite rom-com for the final act! The usually likable Pegg is utterly obnoxious, Bridges is wasted as the magazine chief, and love interest Dunst just coasts along in a mild stupor, likely painfully aware that she’s playing little more than a diluted variation on Shirley MacLaine’s character from The Apartment. Satirical targets are missed left and right, leaving the very few humorous moments to inevitably be of the cheap variety (e.g., the fake movie trailer where Fox plays a sexually-awakened Mother Theresa). Inspired by Toby Young’s same-named memoir, a person who managed to score a background cameo and subsequently get banned from the set for his boorish behavior. Chris O’Dowd and Thandie Newton also cameo, the latter as herself.

34/100