Sunday, March 20, 2016

GET A JOB

Miles Teller     Anna Kendrick     Bryan Cranston     Alison Brie     Marcia Gay Harden


          If you value quality filmmaking, stay as far away from this film, Get a Job, as you can.  It’s about a heart-breaking event that far too many people are experiencing today—losing their job—and this movie wants to make a comedy of that; moreover people’s getting jobs in the end has no logical bearing on their attempts to get a job or their performance once landing one.  It’s a shame that it wastes an excellent cast on a silly story. 
        A group of guys live in a rented house smoking bongs, playing video games, reading porn, drinking beer, and in between applying for jobs.  Will (Teller) is one of these and in a serious relationship with Jillian (Kendrick) who has just secured a job she is excited about.  She is not featured much in the film, except that when she comes to live in the house she is stereotypically cleaning it up and eventually gets drawn into the boys’ activities. 
        Will is set up to be one of the wonder boys in the action, and although it doesn’t appear he does much of substance, he gets hired by a boss who was impressed with one of his videos about a pimp, and he is subsequently promoted by a controlling, flirtatious, bossy woman (again, a stereotype) (Harden).  He has doubled his salary in no time.
        To pull in the older crowd, we learn about Will’s father (Cranston), who loses his senior position after 30 years at a company, and Will begins to offer his videotaping services to assist him in his search for something new. 
      Get a Job doesn’t really have a message—at least I couldn’t detect one.  There is a harangue about school children getting awards for doing nothing, a glance at someone developing an app that allows someone to stalk someone else, and a bit about one of Will’s roommates making it big on Wall Street and being told not to worry about losing 50 million dollars—just to get back to work and earn it back.  The final outcome seems to be that you can make it big if you work in the porn business.

Get a Job needs to be canned.


Grade:  F                         By Donna R. Copeland

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