CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 10/03/08

Celebu-taunting

By david michael wharton

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

Screenplay by Peter Straughan
Based on the book by Toby Young

Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) is a British tabloid journalist with a penchant for taking celebrities down a peg (no relation) in his gossip rag, the Post Modern Review. After a scathing cover story attracts the attention of Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), the editor of the trendy New York-based Sharps magazine, Young hops across the pond and into a new job that epitomizes everything he hates. He now spends his time captioning photos of the posh parties he was never invited to, but the possibility of upward mobility into the glitterati—and the slim hope of bedding stunning but vacuous It girl Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) —seduces him into abandoning the principles he once held dear. Based on the memoir by Vanity Fair writer Toby Young, How to Lose Friends aims to be a sort of Devil Wears Prada for the celeb-journo scene, and is most interesting when focused on the conflict between Young's integrity and his desire to crack the Manhattan caste system. Unfortunately, the film never quite decides what kind of story it wants to tell, mixing slapstick with half-baked sentiment and turning what works best as a friendship born of mutual frustration into an unconvincing romance between Young and his co-worker Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst). By the time the film rolls into the third act, there's no doubt how things will wind up, but the resolution of the romantic subplot does surprise…just not in a good way. A finale straight from the rom-com playbook feels abrupt, arbitrary, and—much like Young on his first day at Sharps—entirely out of place.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
MGM
Rated R; 110 min.

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David Michael Wharton is the managing editor of CS Weekly and a contributing editor of Creative Screenwriting. He's never worn Prada, but he does know how to lose friends and alienate people.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People courtesy MGM

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