I missed John Krasinski’s directorial debut, which bowed at Sundance. Brief Interviews With Hideous Men was one of the movies I was excited to see, mostly because it was an adaptation of a David Foster Wallace book. I had a ticket to see a public screening – one that was right across the street from my condo! – and was ready to go but two things happened:
1) Word came back that it was terrible. Scott Weinberg of Cinematical said that the two words to describe the 70 something minute movie were contained in the title. Even those who didn’t hate the film felt like it was a failure.
2) It was late in the week, I was exhausted and we had started watching The Manitou at the cabin. At all times my priorities remain intact.
So Brief Interviews was a major Sundance dud. I have to wonder if the resounding failure of that film is what convinced Krasinski to sign on to the new, horrible looking Nancy Meyers film, Untitled Nancy Meyers Project, But The Eventual Title Won’t Even Be Half As Catchy As Untitled Nancy Meyers Project. This film is one of the late period Steve Martin movies, and it also features Meryl ‘I like working’ Streep and Alec Baldwin.
Krasinski, one of the stars of The Office, is no stranger to making terrible, unfunny mainstream movies. Hell, maybe he’s on a quest to star in bad movies featuring once hilarious comedians of the 70s – Robin Williams, check, Steve Martin, check… here comes Cheech & Chong! Or maybe he’s retreating from the sting of Brief Interviews‘ reception (which was mostly everybody simply ignoring it, not shitting all over it like The Informers) into the arms of a movie that is guaranteed to make money opening weekend by appealing to the Lady In Your Office Whose Cubicle Is Plastered With Cat Pictures demo.