The Year of Spectacular Men

When you're in an entertainment family like this, it must be fun. Some good elements here. Witty dialog, unique humor. The paparazzi characters were a nice touch. Nothing to dislike. Solid first effort.

I didn't realize that this movie was made by people who are related to each other until I read some of the reviews but that explains why the chemistry between them felt so natural and strong. I was happy to see Leah Thompson again, as it had been a while since Caroline in the City which was one of my favorite shows when I was young.

I loved this movie. It was pitch perfect from beginning to end with no false notes either in the acting or the writing. I don't know much about cinematography but nothing felt bad about that either. The plot isn't super-compelling; a young woman dates a string of losers and finds herself at the end -- we've seen it a million times. But it was nice to see it done so well. This movie wasn't a product, trying to sell a happy ending or a sad ending or the idea of true love or girl power or sister power or action figures, or anything.

It was just a story about a woman growing up and getting an idea of who she is. Her relationships both with herself and the people around her are believable, and she is quirky and likable and selfish and introspective and poetic and angry without being cartoonish about any of those things. It's audacious to expect a plot like this to hold the attention of an entire audience, or at least it would have been two years ago. This is exactly the kind of story we need in 2018 (and it came out last year, so it's perfect timing).

Someone else described the movie about a woman who ruins her relationships with a bunch of men but that's not accurate. The men were mostly terrible, except for the last one, all seeing her as an appendage that either completes or doesn't complete them. To be fair, she sees them the same way, again, until the last guy.

No one, from the newly-gay mom to the movie-star sister felt over-the-top or one-dimensional. Some of the tertiary characters were less dimensional, but they should have been, as the story wasn't about them. But they all felt believable, as though there was more teach each of them, like they all were main characters of their own stories, which was underlined by the candid interviews that each of her love interests had with an unidentified documentarian or viewer.

I actually liked this because I relate to the habit of talking to an imaginary interviewer about my life in the past tense as a way of trying to figure out how I feel about things that are happening in the present. Not sure when or why I developed this habit but I think a lot of people do it, so I wasn't confused when I saw it on screen. It also helped underline how each of the men saw the main character as a reflection of themselves and what she was to them instead of an actual, autonomous, multidimensional human being.

I also really liked the famous-sister aspect with the paparazzi being present almost as scenery. Usually a movie about a movie star or her not-famous sister will center around ambition and jealousy and this didn't. It was just the sister's job to be a movie star. So the setting and some of the plot meandered into movie making but the focus never did.

I think my favorite part was the relationship between the sisters. They had a kind of semi-functional dynamic in the beginning, which changed and repaired throughout the movie. Whatever silent resentments and baggage they had about each other, which naturally build up over a lifetime for any siblings, weren't exaggerated or made the focus of either the plot or their relationship. They liked each other and sometimes didn't, respected each other and sometimes didn't, and loved each other -- always.

Anyway, I don't write reviews very often but I wasn't expecting much when I clicked on it and ended up really enjoying the movie. I was curious about who wrote it, which is how I ended up here and it upset me to see the bad reviews, and as much as those people are entitled to their opinions, I thought I'd add mine to the mix and balance out the overall impression of the move to anyone else stumbling across these reviews.

I keep coming back to this movie. The relationship between the sisters, the themes of becoming an adult and moving away from grief, the music. Of course this movie was made by a mother and her daughters - it so brilliantly captures those relationships. I really hope they have more stories in them.

The low score this film received on IMDB motivated me to write this review, my first. I realize this is clearly a result of not enough women contributing. Come on ladies - make your voices heard more often.

Apart from the quaintness of the real life Mother and Daughters thing this rom com is not that great. The way the cast delivers their one liners in a monotone makes it hard to appreciate the comedy. A little more mention of adult things than typical Lifetime. Not lol funny. The guys are a little unspectacular. Sometimes the shouting of the characters borders on shrill.

Not a must watch.

There are actually a few things to like about this film.

Theoretically, there is no reason the average Joe on the street should (or could) relate to the lives of these characters. Movie stars, glamourous looking chicks, awkward movie directors, the moviestar boyfriend who looks like Johnny Depp...

I do find it interesting that certain aspects of the film would have raised eyebrows in previous eras, yet it would have to be considered quite tame by todays standards.

Izzy herself and her "year of male smorgasbording" might even have have been given some pretty unflattering labels, IF this were a different era!!

But she is gorgeous, and even if the characters dont really represent "everyday" people, the dramas they have are still relevant to the reality of life today.

So in that regard, the three female leads manage to pull it off, for me anyway.

They deliver likeable characters that somehow manage to inject a certain form of reality that makes you feel for them and their dramas.

Not every film has to have endless plots and deliver earthshattering realisations. I was a bit dubious after the first 20 minutes, but i am glad i kept watching. There was enough to keep me interested till the end, but maybe some of that is due to being a sucker for gorgeous blondes.

Not exceedingly great, but (all in all) a passable package as far as rom-coms go.