According to Spencer

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.

I saw this movie on cable on rainy day when there was nothing else on TV, not knowing what to expect but my curiosity was peaked by the talent (Mia Kirshner, Giovanni Ribisi, Jesse Bradeford...script by Melissa Ribisi).

I was surprisingly thoroughly entertained and laughed myself silly. It was funny! It's one of those films that if you live of have lived in Los Angeles, you can appreciate the humor. Kind of like Swingers (I saw Swingers when I lived in NY, and I didn't get the hype, then I saw it a few years later after moving to LA and I couldn't stop laughing).

Not a masterpiece but if you're ever home on a rainy day and should happen to stumble across this one on cable, it's the worth the time.

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!!

Okay, I admit it, I only rented this movie out because Jesse Bradford is in it (which if you ask me is good enough reason alone!) What I got was basically a predictable romance...There are a few amusing scenes in this film (mainly those with Spencer's room-mates) But thats it. The movie relies too heavily on gay jokes and basic plot elements. Best watched for either a Jesse perve, (which is worth it by the way!) Or for an easy-to-watch pretty much brain-less film.

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.