Film Review

09 January 2009 04:53 BST

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Directed by Robert Weide, in cinemas October 3rd, starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Megan Fox, Gillian Anderson, running time 110 mins.

In a nutshell...

Magazine industry wannabe sticks his foot in it

What's it all about?

Sidney Young (Pegg) is a would-be journalist who is so desperate to ingratiate himself with the celebrity glitterati that he sinks to the lows of trying to get into an awards party with a pig under his arm, which he claims to be the star of Babe. His life and career are going nowhere until he gets a call from Clayton Harding (Bridges), editor of American uber-mag Sharps, who offers him a job.

With aspirations of taking the glossy magazine world by storm, Sidney heads to the bright lights of New York. As he begins to make an impression on his new colleagues, for all the wrong reasons, and meets characters ranging from stunning starlets to sleazy section editors, Sidney begins to suspect that the world of celebrity journalism may not as glamorous as it appears from the outside.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is loosely based on the best-selling book of the same name by Toby Young, which chronicles his eventful and occasionally disastrous five-year stint working for famed US magazine Vanity Fair.


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Who's in it?

After cutting his comedy teeth co-writing and starring in the brilliant Spaced and moving to the big screen with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg takes on only his second leading role in a film that is not partly his own work. Pegg fans who also have an interest in the adventures of the USS Enterprise will be eager to see next year's Star Trek movie, in which he will play Scotty.

Jeff Bridges makes a welcome return to the comedy fold in the role of Clayton Harding (the on-screen version of Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair) and Kirsten Dunst plays magazine staffer Alison, who is given the unenviable job of showing Sidney the ropes.

Megan Fox lives up to her name in the role of Sophie Maes, the sexiest young starlet on the block, to whom Sidney takes an instant liking, while Gillian Anderson gets her teeth into the character of Eleanor Johnson, the scheming publicist orchestrating Sophie's ascent to the celebrity stratosphere.

As an example...

"So you've not won any Oscars then?" - Sidney
"No." - Sophie
"Because I would definitely vote for you for best supporting dress." - Sidney
"I'm sorry, I just, I can't really understand your accent." - Sophie

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Pretty slim. The Academy rarely pays much heed to comedies unless they are of the animated kind. The only possibility would be a screenplay award, although there would be some debate as to whether the film meets the criteria of an adaptation.

What the others say

"Not as smart or as satirical as you might hope, but an enjoyable and often funny look at a mad, mad, mad, mad world." – Empire

"Smart, funny delve into celeb mags." – Sunday Mirror

So is it any good?

By all accounts, including those in his own book, Toby Young has more of a talent for causing irritation and starting trouble than winning friends. In his production diaries for the film, published in Empire magazine, director Robert Weide tells of how Young riled Kirsten Dunst by offering her tips on her performance and irked the director himself by offering a long critique of a scene in the film, explaining why it "didn't really work".

It is a good thing then that the central character in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, whose foray into the world of magazine publishing is inspired by Young's book, is played by Simon Pegg, an actor who is almost impossible not to like. Pegg's screen presence means that the character of Sidney Young comes across as a clueless but well-intentioned outsider whose biggest flaw is often his honesty. Pegg showed with Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead that he has that certain something that all comic actors need to appear at home on the big screen and he underlines his credentials as a genuine comedy star in this film.

Pegg is backed up by a solid supporting cast, with the ever-reliable Jeff Bridges doing an excellent job in the role of the big-time magazine editor, who often seems to share Sidney's sense of mischief and despair at the sycophancy of the glossy magazine industry. Megan Fox and particularly Gillian Anderson give strong performances as the figures at the centre of the latest celebrity feeding frenzy and Kirsten Dunst, despite playing the character with the least comic potential, is easy to warm to in a role that is central to the film's plot.

Most importantly of all, seeing as it is a comedy film, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is genuinely funny. Robert Weide shows his awareness of the dynamics of comedy by creating a steady pace between the funny moments, which range from Sidney's ill-fated attempt to win over Sophie's beloved dog to his uniquely English drunkenness at a 4th of July party in the Hamptons.

It may not have anything groundbreaking or even original to say about the glossy magazine business or modern celebrity culture, but How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is an enjoyable Saturday night flick with some great gags and a genuine star in its lead role.

7/10

Ross Kane

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