On How To Lose Friends and Alienate People

Rated R, for transgender nudity, drug abuse and language.

Staring: Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Gillian Anderson, Megan Fox, Jeff Bridges


In 2001, British writer Toby Young published the memoir, “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.” It is a personal account of his struggles as a writer for the popular US magazine “Vanity Fair.” Though, the plot of the movie follows the general outline of the narrative within the book, much artistic license is taken within the film to give a wider appeal to the audience and names are changed to protect against any lawsuits. I guess the appeal the filmmakers are going for includes full frontal transsexual nudity, vomit and pig feces. Furthermore, I have to say that the main character is rather annoying and it took me a while to figure out exactly why the guy bothers me so much. After some objective viewing, I figured out from how the lead acts and dresses that he reminds me a lot of myself. What a jackass!

The independent film stars Simon Pegg as Sidney Young, a British man working for a low scale publication in Britain, entitled The Post Modern Review. While working there, he publishes a front-page article featuring Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), who is the head-cheese of a large celebrity gossip magazine based in New York City, and Sidney rapidly attracts his attention. Clayton promptly calls him, offering him a job, which Sidney of course takes and moves from Britain to the “Big Apple.”

Sidney quickly finds himself thrust into parties attended by Hollywood’s elite, of which there are several cameos, and it is from these situations and the celebrities he meets there, where most of the comedy comes from in “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.” This movie does a pretty good job at trashing on Hollywood culture and moronic, slutty actresses, like Sophie Maes(Megan Fox) and hilariously pummels pop-media and fame-ridden aristocrats, so much so that I found this aspect of the film to be rather enjoyable, especially their poking fun at all those Hollywood Chihuahuas the upper crust like to carry around. In fact, if you find that aspect of Hollywood to be extremely annoying than you just may leave the film feeling like you got a little revenge.

The movie does have its serious points as well, for Sidney constantly battles with his journalistic integrity, and ponders if he should forego it to become increasingly famous and more successful, or if he should stay true to his personal convictions. This is really the only part of the movie I found intriguing in an intellectual sense, and his struggle to maintain journalistic and personal ethics proves to be quite interesting and engaging. It clearly shows the decay and conflict that occurs within a person when we compromise ourselves for our own selfish ambition.

The movie is very well acted, though for me, what really stole the show was the breakthrough performance by Gillian Anderson. I was skeptical if she could ever break the stigma tied to her by her role of Agent Dana Scully in “The X-Files.” I had no idea she was actually in the movie until her name popped up in the main credits and indeed, my first reaction was that I wouldn’t be able to see her in any film without thinking about Fox Mulder and therefore any character she played would probably seem quite out of place. Yet, she proved herself to be a very formidable actress in the movie, playing Eleanore Johnson, a famous pompous New York City publicist, who represents several of the stars Sidney comes into contact with. I was shocked and quickly proven wrong by her role and didn’t even think once of Mulder, Area 51 or the Jersey Devil. It is a kind of role that you may not expect to see her in and she is terrific in it. She just might break out of her Scully persona after all, and may already have, for she is currently filming three more feature motion pictures, though it should be mentioned this film does include “alien” in the title and stars Megan "FOX".

In conclusion, the acting is good and it is rather funny, but the romantic interest between Sidney and co-worker Alison Olson, played by Kirsten Dunst, is one we have seen several times before and it doesn’t provide any surprises. Moreover, the first half-hour to forty-five minutes are so terribly slow and full of lame humor, I pondered taking a nap. Yet, the movie does eventually get rolling along and it provides some good laughs after that, but the unoriginality of the plot is what comes out cursing this movie. Simon Peg is pretty good, Kirsten Dunst is delightful, Jeff Bridges is great, but it was Gillian Anderson who was the real surprise to me. Despite the stars, their performances, and some laughs, they just couldn’t keep the movie or plot afloat and I am stuck giving “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People,” two out of four Jersey Devils.