Quick Entry: I Love You, Man and The Informant

In the interest of full disclosure I considered not posting on the movies I Love You, Man (ILYM) and The Informant (TI) as I saw them almost 2 months ago, but the whole point of this blog is for me to write at least a little something about the movies I see, so here I go.

Why did I not write about them earlier? Honestly, I don't know. Sometimes I have no strong feelings about a movie one way or the other, and that would be the best way to sum up my feelings about both ILYM and TI. They were fine viewing experiences, but nothing that made me want to write a blog entry immediately.

And so with that, here are some quick notes about each movie, as best I can remember:

ILYM:

• Jason Segel is good, but Paul Rudd is great. I think in comedy, and most comedians will back me up on this, that in any comedy team it is exponentially harder to play the straight man. Playing the goof ball is easy in that you can do crazy, outlandish stuff and it seem appropriate. As the straight man, you have to be just silly enough for the goofball to bounce off of and just smooth enough to make the comedy work. Rudd has proven over and over again (Think The 40 Year Old Virgin) that he is a master at this, and he does it again in this film.
• I'm a Rashida Jones fan and wish she got more leading roles and wasn't on the God-awful Parks and Recreation.
• I like that comedies like the aforementioned Virgin and this movie treat its audience like adults and talk like I do with my friends. How refreshing that they didn't edit it to get a PG-13 rating and suck all the originality of it.
• The first hour is pretty good, but the last 45 minutes or so are a bit lackluster. But the first hour makes it worth it.

TI:

• This is a REALLY quirky movie and has a very specific sense of humor, so be warned in advanced that this definitely won't be everybody's cup of tea. It wasn't mine, and I like to think I'm pretty quirky. I just got continually frustrated by the film's narrative approach, particularly the voiceover, to the point that at about halfway through I was just marking time til the film was over. One of my least favorite Steven Soderbergh and Matt Damon movies that I've seen.
• I applaud Damon's effort, but this character is not very likable, particularly when you get to the last half hour when what's really going on is fully revealed. I won't spoil it, but he is not going to be winning any popularity contests. The only reason I even remotely liked him is because Damon works overtime to make him at least slightly sympathetic.
• The visual look that Soderbergh gives the movie is very sepia-toned, which I'm not sure I would've done with this film, but I will give him credit in that it definitely sets the mood and tone for TI, as it is a slight period piece. The sepia-toned choice makes me think he was trying too hard to be a "filmmaker" and wasn't focused on telling an interesting story. Lately in his film I've been thinking that he needs to get out of his own way. I don't know how else to say it.

That's all I got. Don't judge.