Pretty Ugly People (2008)
Directed by Tate Taylor
Lucy has always used food to escape life's problems, but when this self-titled "fat friend" lures her group of old college buddies to the Montana wilderness, she reveals a new self - skinny, beautiful and still flawed.
1 connection found
View:
1 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Pretty Ugly People to
Technically, "The Help" is flawless and a joy for the eye, thanks to the 1960s styles and furnishings that make it a sort of Dixie-fried "Mad Men." Touchstone Pictures took a necessary risk by entrusting the film to Jackson native Taylor, a lifelong friend of Stockett with only one little-seen feature to his credit (2008's "Pretty Ugly People"); remarkably, Taylor, who was granted the rights to the work by Stockett, makes hardly a misstep, and his patient staging and storytelling style suggest the work of a classical old-school studio director.
Written and directed by Tate Taylor, Pretty Ugly People follows Missi Pyle's Lucy as she decides to unveil her dramatic weight loss to a group of college friends during a wilderness getaway - with the movie detailing the long-buried secrets and resentments between the characters that are inevitably revealed.
Stockett’s childhood friend, actor turned writer-director Tate Taylor, directed the $25 million movie, a leap of faith from the DreamWorks studio considering his only previous effort, Pretty Ugly People, is an obscure 2008 comedy.
"The Help" is only Taylor's second feature film and a big leap from the small scale of his pointed "Pretty Ugly People," which poked fun at our obsession with being thin.
For that, credit strong writing and direction from Tate Taylor ("Pretty Ugly People") and that incredible ensemble cast, which also includes Sissy Spacek, Cicely Tyson, and Bryce Dallas Howard.
It took some Googling, but I finally learned why The Help—a property that should have had “Tyler Perry” written all over it—went to Taylor, an occasional bit actor whose only feature as writer-director was the contrived, superficial Pretty Ugly People.