![1. Did we all talk about Crazy, Stupid, Love over the summer? Internet? Did I miss those discussions? Wondering, it seems like something we would all enjoy discussing but the ad campaign was fairly awful so I understand if none of us bothered.
2. Some parts of this are so good! Really enjoyable. I don’t know if maybe I was just jet-lagged or dumb or what but I actually did not see the reveal coming, and I liked it, and the whole scene built around it is delightful. Is funny. Is a sweet little piece of farce. I know I can’t talk more about it but the second Gosling goes to take off his ring, HAH.
3. I think my number one problem with it was how it probably would have been a very successful ensemble piece, but instead it kept winding itself around Steve Carell’s character. And even that wouldn’t be so bad except that Julianne Moore’s character is underwritten at best, and, balance. Then you have Marisa Tomei dropping in from a completely different Carell movie, ANALEIGH FROM TOP MODEL doing the nudity challenge for sketchy reasons, and up against all of that you have the young daughter who is hardly ever in it and Emma Stone who is absolute perfection and we’ll get to that BUT, do you know what I mean? These are not particularly well-written women, these are, images of women carved out of a wistful-unbelievable preteenage boy’s mind. Because right, actually, although the movie is wound around Carell’s character, it’s shaded by the son. His viewpoint, his lousy, adorable, lousy romantic gestures. His insistence that you have to keep pursuing the object of your affection even if nay especially if this makes her uncomfortable. Or angry. Because the thing about women is that they don’t even know what they want, right? So, whatever it takes.
4. The title is the worst.
5. The comedy of the Carell/Gosling makeover scene is pretty great, though, I will say, and it flew pretty close to a genuine romantic-comedy role-reversal situation, you know, make the ugly goose a pretty unicorn or what. Watching it at home in a post-Drive/supermeme universe it made me feel like I don’t actually have to be so suspicious of Gosling, because he is capable of something interesting. There’s something stupid watchable about him, you know the whole time that he’s not as dumb as he’s playing it, or at least you think you know, and you know what if it turns out he is as dumb as he’s playing it, maybe that in itself is a completely brilliant move, God. (Which is why all those macros work, right? Right.)
6. I never ever am sure that I am spelling Steve Carell’s name right.
7. I love Emma Stone. I don’t think I have to justify that, except The Help, but if I never see it then it doesn’t matter. Have you guys seen The House Bunny? Yeah, she’s great in The House Bunny. So. There’s a sequence in the middle of the movie that begins with her being embarrassed by Josh Groban and ends much better, and, I wish it was the whole movie? I wish it was the whole movie. You can watch part of it right here. No, go on, watch it. “AHHHHH I HATE GIN.” Get to :47 where she wish-fulfillments our whole lives. You know what I want, I want her to be in, some, a screwball comedy, a good one, where she talks fast and flusters and has it all or, did you get to 1:45 yet? “That’s not my drink.” THE FACE SHE IS MAKING. You can actually genuinely believe that she is putting what’s his name’s world all askew. “I am HERE. To BANG. The hot guy who hit on me at the bar.” Sorry, not to liveblog, but the face at 3:06? COME ON. Then there’s the part that they used in the commercials and it was stupid then and it’s stupid now a little but I just, I like it. “Is there dim lighting somewhere?” Okay, I’m done.
8. (“Can I put back on my shirt?” Gosling got that wrong, right? Amazing. What a fucking idiot genius.)
9. The pilot light scene was entirely great. Carell and Moore have genuinely strong chemistry. I guess we all hated her accent on 30 Rock (I didn’t actually) but personally I’ll just say I think she’s very funny. I know we’ve all seen The Big Lebowski but I want to be clear. And I know my recommendation means a lot to her.
[9.5. Remember when Edie Falco was Jack’s love interest, though? Remember when Edie Falco was in the Broadway revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune? Did you know that in that play there’s a whole thing where Frankie is trying to get Johnny to make her a western omelet, and do you remember in the first Edie Falco episode of 30 Rock there’s a scene where she’s listing the things she likes about Jack and one of them is that he made her a western omelet at 4am? I think that’s phenomenal.]
10. B-. By the way, Kevin Bacon is in it.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly84iotPLQ1qz8tdso1_500.jpg)
1. Did we all talk about Crazy, Stupid, Love over the summer? Internet? Did I miss those discussions? Wondering, it seems like something we would all enjoy discussing but the ad campaign was fairly awful so I understand if none of us bothered.
2. Some parts of this are so good! Really enjoyable. I don’t know if maybe I was just jet-lagged or dumb or what but I actually did not see the reveal coming, and I liked it, and the whole scene built around it is delightful. Is funny. Is a sweet little piece of farce. I know I can’t talk more about it but the second Gosling goes to take off his ring, HAH.
3. I think my number one problem with it was how it probably would have been a very successful ensemble piece, but instead it kept winding itself around Steve Carell’s character. And even that wouldn’t be so bad except that Julianne Moore’s character is underwritten at best, and, balance. Then you have Marisa Tomei dropping in from a completely different Carell movie, ANALEIGH FROM TOP MODEL doing the nudity challenge for sketchy reasons, and up against all of that you have the young daughter who is hardly ever in it and Emma Stone who is absolute perfection and we’ll get to that BUT, do you know what I mean? These are not particularly well-written women, these are, images of women carved out of a wistful-unbelievable preteenage boy’s mind. Because right, actually, although the movie is wound around Carell’s character, it’s shaded by the son. His viewpoint, his lousy, adorable, lousy romantic gestures. His insistence that you have to keep pursuing the object of your affection even if nay especially if this makes her uncomfortable. Or angry. Because the thing about women is that they don’t even know what they want, right? So, whatever it takes.
4. The title is the worst.
5. The comedy of the Carell/Gosling makeover scene is pretty great, though, I will say, and it flew pretty close to a genuine romantic-comedy role-reversal situation, you know, make the ugly goose a pretty unicorn or what. Watching it at home in a post-Drive/supermeme universe it made me feel like I don’t actually have to be so suspicious of Gosling, because he is capable of something interesting. There’s something stupid watchable about him, you know the whole time that he’s not as dumb as he’s playing it, or at least you think you know, and you know what if it turns out he is as dumb as he’s playing it, maybe that in itself is a completely brilliant move, God. (Which is why all those macros work, right? Right.)
6. I never ever am sure that I am spelling Steve Carell’s name right.
7. I love Emma Stone. I don’t think I have to justify that, except The Help, but if I never see it then it doesn’t matter. Have you guys seen The House Bunny? Yeah, she’s great in The House Bunny. So. There’s a sequence in the middle of the movie that begins with her being embarrassed by Josh Groban and ends much better, and, I wish it was the whole movie? I wish it was the whole movie. You can watch part of it right here. No, go on, watch it. “AHHHHH I HATE GIN.” Get to :47 where she wish-fulfillments our whole lives. You know what I want, I want her to be in, some, a screwball comedy, a good one, where she talks fast and flusters and has it all or, did you get to 1:45 yet? “That’s not my drink.” THE FACE SHE IS MAKING. You can actually genuinely believe that she is putting what’s his name’s world all askew. “I am HERE. To BANG. The hot guy who hit on me at the bar.” Sorry, not to liveblog, but the face at 3:06? COME ON. Then there’s the part that they used in the commercials and it was stupid then and it’s stupid now a little but I just, I like it. “Is there dim lighting somewhere?” Okay, I’m done.
8. (“Can I put back on my shirt?” Gosling got that wrong, right? Amazing. What a fucking idiot genius.)
9. The pilot light scene was entirely great. Carell and Moore have genuinely strong chemistry. I guess we all hated her accent on 30 Rock (I didn’t actually) but personally I’ll just say I think she’s very funny. I know we’ve all seen The Big Lebowski but I want to be clear. And I know my recommendation means a lot to her.
[9.5. Remember when Edie Falco was Jack’s love interest, though? Remember when Edie Falco was in the Broadway revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune? Did you know that in that play there’s a whole thing where Frankie is trying to get Johnny to make her a western omelet, and do you remember in the first Edie Falco episode of 30 Rock there’s a scene where she’s listing the things she likes about Jack and one of them is that he made her a western omelet at 4am? I think that’s phenomenal.]
10. B-. By the way, Kevin Bacon is in it.
