According to Spencer

Spencer (Jesse Bradford) moves to Los Angeles to start anew. Unexpectly, he runs into (literally!) a car driven by a girl, Melora (Mia Kershner), from his home town who he has admired for years. Voila! She also works at the same advertising firm where Spencer has just signed on as a mail clerk. However, there are complications. To begin, Melora has an on again, off again relationship with a big ad man from the same company. Also, Spencer has a room in an old mansion owned by a gay male couple, who may need him to star in their film project. It is X-rated! Does Spencer have a chance with the lady of his dreams? For those who love old fashioned love stories, this one is a good one! The two stars are wonderfully attractive and funny and the bizarre stream of characters that inhabit the film hit the funny bone, too. The costumes are a bit dismal but the local scenery is very nice. However, a word of caution is advised. There is some racy dialogue pertaining to the gay couple and their pornographic film. While the number of minutes devoted to them is small, those who like good clean fun may be offended. Nonetheless, this film shoots an almost-straight arrow at the heart of those who cherish the timeless tale of love.

Jesse Bradford has no idea of what to do with his life. So he moves to Los Angeles, where he quickly scores an apartment, a job at an advertising agency, and a reconnection with Mia Kirshner, whom he has loved since he was about ten. Then he drifts and things start to go away. Fortunately there's the ghost of his grandmother, Florence Stanley, to tell him what to do when things fall apart.

The movie is eked out with what are supposed to be quirky characters, like his room mates, who are making a porno convinced it is an art picture, and the executive at the agency who is dating Miss Kirshner, and so forth. I find them all occupying the border space between sad, delusional and disgusting. While Miss Kirshner and Miss Stanley are charming and speak the lines to advance the plot with conviction, the other characters are tiresome. With Giovanni Ribisi and Adam Goldberg.

This movie was sub-par at all attempts at comedy,romance,and wit.Most of the movie is spent emphasizing the wounds we all suffer after a relationship is broken or lost.The leading woman was SO boring,she could hardly hold my attention or interest and she just came off as annoying.The best part of the film was Spencer's room-mates.They made me laugh a little,hardly enough to recommend this movie to my friends.The truth is,if this movie made more of an attempt to be a romance or comedy,not both,the characters would be more defined and we could see their point of view and understand why they have certain tendencies towards relationships.So if you want to kill an hour and thirty four minutes,but don't want to get caught up in a movie's plot,see "According To Spencer".

P.S. if your seeing this movie for Giovanni Ribisi,don't turn your head or you'll miss his MINUTE AND A HALF cameo!!

I have read all the reviews before me to see what the "common" viewer has seen in this film. Mosy people take every scene exactly word for word.

I've read comment about "gay" roommates. The filmmaker roommates are not gay. The people who have said the roommates are gay should stop posting if they have no idea what they are talking about. They are struggling directors with no talent. They are the epitome of Hollywood. No one sees the unsuccessful in Hollywood.

Mia's character is a common feminine character in films today. Her character fits the gender role put out by Hollywood and even independent film. Women are depicted as being dependent on a wealthy man. They are interested in men with money. Money makes the world go round.

The film falls apart when they try to find some far fetched way to try to make Jesse Bradford a successful business man. The script is written in a way that seems fake.

I enjoyed to movie. The soundtrack is independent. The problem is that the script is as predictable as 99 percent of all romantic comedies.

I hope this helps. I recommend this movie if you watch many movies. The soundtrack itself is worth the viewing.

The stale premise - an innocent youth comes to the big city and against all odds wins the career and girl of his dreams - is not made fresher by such devices as a deceased grandma who keeps showing up to offer sage advice. (The only point of marginal interest is the script's limp switcheroo on "The Apartment": Here, it's the junior executive (Kirshner) who's involved with the boss, while the torch-carrying schnook is working class.) In "King of the Hill" Jesse Bradford had enough charisma to carry a film, a quality that appears to have receded as puberty set in. Or maybe he just gets poor career advice. Certainly he is ill served by drek like "SwimFan," "Speedway Junky," and this one. . .

In a subplot tied with the thinnest of threads to the main story, Spencer's roommates (David Krumholtz and Adam Goldberg) are holed up in a mansion they evidently and unaccountably own, attempting to make an amateur porn film. Watching their mirthless antics I was reminded of the efforts of supporting players Abbott and Costello to shine as a team in "One Night in the Tropics," except neither Krumholtz nor Goldberg would qualify as "the funny one." Even the title is off - Spencer is a clueless naif who never expresses any view of life that would qualify as "according to." The picture seems intended as a lighthearted romp among friends, but the results are just heavy, predictable, and dull.