How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is based on the memoir of the same name by British journalist Toby Young. The story chronicles his failed attempted at becoming a successful contributor at Conde Nast Publications’ Vanity Fair magazine. Though the movie follows a similar storyline, but both the names of the magazine and people Young came into contact with during the time were changed for the film adaptation. The filmmakers also concede that some of the content in the film has been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Having read and enjoyed Young’s book when it came out back in 2001, I can say he is far more obnoxious and rude than the film suggests. While there are some fictionalized moments, some of the most shocking are true. Young did really did send a strip-o-gram to the office on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day (“a regrettable mistake”). He admits to vomiting on people, ignoring deadlines, offending countless publicists and suggesting offensive stories. Given all that if director Robert B. Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and screenwriter Peter Straughan didn’t fictionalize some of Young’s memoir they would have faced an NC-17 rating.
Simon Pegg was the perfect choice to play Young; renamed Sidney for the film. When the call comes from Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges) asking Young to leave his small magazine in London for New York based Sharps magazine, Young barges in like a bat out of hell. Pegg gets to show off some of his outstanding physical comedy skills, as Sidney Young trips, spits food, sets off fire alarms, fails to save a Chihuahua from a falling vase and does several vigorous dance routines.
Young quickly alienates his greasy editor Lawrence Maddox (Danny Huston), and his big time agent, Eleanor Johnson. As Eleanor, Gillian Anderson is wonderfully vicious–cool, refined and brokering access to her biggest talents and all the while looking capable of biting someone’s head off. At the start, Young’s most vocal enemy is his colleague Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst). An aspiring novelist, Olsen writes the photo captions for Sharps. She simmers with contempt for Sidney until he comes to her rescue after a bad relationship goes awry.
Though Young initially comes into the Sharps offices vowing to shake things up, he eventually decides to tow the line. Desperate to keep his job and get closer to young actress Sophie Maes (Meghan Fox), Sidney decides to write the puff pieces the magazines want and publicists expect. It’s not until the end of the film that Sidney realizes he doesn’t want to sleep with the young actress and be at the center of the celebrity universe. Instead, he wants to spend his life with the quiet Alison.
Despite the romantic storyline in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the best relationship in the film is the one between Sidney and Clayton. The scenes between the two men account for some of the best work in the film. Despite the fact that Clayton claims to disrespect Sidney, the fact is, the two men understand each other. Young knows that in him Clayton recognizes his own rebellious youth. And Clayton realizes that Young’s abhorrent behavior is just a front for his awe over be so close to the rich and famous.
Bridges and Pegg play off each other very well. Bridges has the look of a man who’s probably still as angry as he was fifteen or twenty years before, he’s just compensated well enough not to show it. The one time he allows himself to break into a big smile–lets us know that somewhere in there still beats the heart of the dude. Pegg in full disaster mode throughout is at his best when caught in Bridges’ crosshairs.
While How to Lose Friends and Alienate People would have been improved with more scenes between Bridges and Pegg, director Robert B. Weide has crafted a witty film that provides a bruising look at celebrity culture. This film won’t win any awards but it’s bound to get you laughing. Oh, and if you’re going to check out the film, I recommend you read Toby Young’s book on which it’s based.
The screener disc sent for review does not represent final product as it has a Fox watermark in the lower right hand corner of the picture. As a result, I can’t fairly evaluate the video quality.
The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track on this disc is fairly solid. While this is a film that’s primarily based around stretches of dialogue, there are moments where the surround channels come to life such as a club or party scene. Bass response is strong but not overpowering and the levels are nicely balanced throughout. Optional subtitles are provided in English and Spanish and French and Spanish 5.1 track are also included.
The film has a couple of extras. Director Robert B. Weide joins Simon Pegg for a fun commentary track. They discuss writing, casting and the shoot in New York City but spend a fair bit of time joking around as well. A second audio commentary finds Weide flying solo and it isn’t as amusing as his collaboration with Pegg, but it’s worth a listen as it’s more technical than the first track and covers different ground. It’s a more serious discussion that delves into where some of the ideas for Sidney and a few other characters came from and points out a lot of fun little details that are peppered throughout the movie.
Fox has also supplied a Making Of Featurette (18:38) that allows Weide to talk about how he instantly loved the script and how a few changes were made before casting the picture. This is really standard “making of” stuff.
It should be noted that the British DVD release of the movie set to have a considerably more impressive array of extras than those seen on this North American release.
