Get a Job

Get a Job was a mediocre comedy movie staring Miles Teller and his girlfriend Anna Kendrick as recent college graduates who have a hard time getting decent jobs. We could all relate one way or another, where we are lost at sea till someone or something helps us along the way. The characters discover that the most important adventures are those you don't see coming. Bryan Cranston played Mikes' father as he loses his job along the way and hides his secret from his family. The all star cast also included Allison Brie as part of middle management associate, Brandon Jackson and Christopher Mintz-Piasse as Teller's roommates who are also jobless. Marcia Gay Harden is the over the top CEO, Jorge Garcia as the janitor, Jay Pharoah as the sleepy pimp, a brief appearance by John Cho, as well as John C. McGinley and Bruce Davidson. If it wasn't for the cast, I wouldn't have watched it but it was okay to watch once.

Will Davis (Miles Teller) and Jillian Stewart (Anna Kendrick) are a recent graduate couple with jobs lined up. It's an overconfident generation where every little accomplishment is greeted with rewards. Will's first paying job at LA Weekly is greeted with downsizing. He and his roommates are weed-smoking video-gamers. Luke (Brandon T. Jackson) starts at a trading firm. Ethan (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has a questionable internet idea. Charlie (Nicholas Braun) is a teacher. Will gets a motel night manager job and quickly gets fired. His dad (Bryan Cranston) also gets downsized and faces the new landscape. Tanya Sellers (Alison Brie) is an inappropriate manager and Katherine Dunn (Marcia Gay Harden) is the strict VP.

There are so many good young actors and skilled veterans in the cast. None of the characters are worth rooting for. There are too many of them and with too many stories. There are lots of attempts at humor but few actual laughs. It has to be the fault of the writers and director. Even the basic premise of a generation of underachievers being rewarded is questionable. Neither Will nor Jillian is presented as slackers. Ethan is delusional and only Charlie truly fits the premise. In fact, Charlie brings the premise to its conclusion. This is so scattered that nothing sticks. If these actors weren't so good, this would really suck.

Not all that good but possible worth a watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Let me start by saying that everything in Get a Job is atrocious except one thing: the acting. If these stars weren't attached to the movie nobody would bat an eye at this thing. It's so awful. I audibly "ugh"-ed when it finished. The message this movie tries to convey is that it's hard to find a job, so you have to stop smoking pot and be determined and never give up and do whatever it takes to get a job. Or don't get a job and be an entrepreneur. The movie throws that one in at the end. A stupid message in the first place because, hey, not everyone has the same circumstances. This type of movie can only resonate with a niche crowd, but worse than that the writing is just dreadful. Cringe-City is what this movie should've been called. I felt bad for Miles Teller having to deliver these cliché lines like, "Never stop believing." Sorry Get a Job but I learned that lesson from Journey a long time ago. Bryan Cranston and Alison Brie try to have fun in their roles, and they really brighten up the mood, but it isn't nearly enough. Anna Kendrick is forced into this shell of a character who gets fired and can't get back on her feet so she succumbs to the evils of weed and laziness. When Anna Kendrick can't be adorable for every second she's on screen, then you know you have a problem.

The problem is literally everything else. The writing, the directing, the editing, the f*cking music, it all SUCKS. It's painful. It's one of those movies where you know if the actors weren't already attached to the project, it would've never been made. But the money was there so they hired great actors and they forgot about the rest of the crew so they got people on the street to do direct and their pet cat to write and who needs an editor anyway? The cat can do it! It's like an amateur film at points. I'll be honest, I chuckled a couple of times. And by a couple of times I mean it. I chuckled twice. Maybe smiled a few more times, but for a majority of Get a Job I was either cringing or frustrated at the fact that it was even greenlit and released. This movie... just...

UGH.

I really cannot express how disappointing it is to have a film with such talented young actors and have it squandered on this piece of film-garbage. There is a whole slew of supporting cast that deserve so much better than to appear in such an uninspired sequence of events. Every character is a stereotypical punch-line waiting to happen. Even an appearance from the legendary John C. Mcginley's Dr. Cox Whistle is not enough to save this plodding, depressing mess.

Seeing Walter White out of work is about as thrilling as remembering that he used to be Malcolm in the Middle's dad.

I do, however, want to commend the filmmakers for attempting (admittedly with poor results) to address the frustration and actual difficulties faced by today's generation, and realise that it isn't all about being spoiled... Until that Hollywood ending shows us it is just that.