Sleeping with Other People (2015)
Directed by Leslye Headland
Can two serial cheaters get a second chance at love? After a one-night stand in college, New Yorkers Lainey and Jake meet by chance twelve years later and discover they each have the same problem: because of their monogamy-challenged ways, neither can maintain a relationship. Determined to stay friends despite their mutual attraction, they make a pact to keep it platonic, a deal that proves easier said than done.
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Master cocksman Jake (Jason Sudeikis), a fast-talker in the mold of the master cocksman played by Robert Downey Jr. in The Pick-Up Artist, peppers his speech with references to Aaron Sorkin and "Game of Thrones" and Wes Anderson and Malcolm Gladwell because he's totally hip.
The last time writer and director Leslye Headland premiered a film at Sundance, it was 2012’s “Bachelorette,” a raunchy twist on the “girls just wanna have fun” subgenre of comedy, and one that might have arrived just a touch too soon after the box office juggernaut that was “Bridesmaids” (in a strange twist, Paul Feig’s feel-good comedy hit was nominated for two Oscars the morning after “Bachelorette” premiered at the festival).
Still, writer-director Leslye Headland keeps things at a foul-mouthed boil, restraining the harsher impulses that made her 2012 Bridesmaids rip-off, Bachelorette, even less popular than They Came Together.
She made Bachelorette in 2012, which came out a year after Bridesmaids and occupied similar territory, without success.
Headland's first feature, "Bachelorette," was released in the wake of "Bridesmaids," and "Sleeping with Other People" springs from the same verbally explicit, sex-positive loins.
The second directorial effort by Leslye Headland (“Bachelorette”) skews as closely as one can to classic romantic comedy tropes in a post-“They Came Together” world while demonstrating that witty dialogue, realistic characters and situations, and spot-on performances can make any seemingly played-out genre come back to life.
Writer-director Leslye Headland (Bachelorette) follows a lot of the old rom-com standby rules with her screenplay, which can get a bit cloying at times, yet she keeps things subversive and nasty enough to qualify her movie as somewhat original.
Since its Sundance debut, writer/director Leslye Headland's ("Bachelorette," 2014's "About Last Night") latest has been described as a raunchy "When Harry Met Sally."
Writer-director Leslye Headland (“Bachelorette”) works in “When Harry Met Sally” territory as she sets up a platonic relationship that always has a bubbling undercurrent of sexual tension.
Headland demonstrated little interest in playing it safe with her previous film, “Bachelorette,” a sour-and-sweet concoction that at times went overboard in grappling with the dark sides and psychological damage of its main characters.
Well, not the actors who bring a certain charm to their roles, enough to make you peeved that writer-director Leslye Headland (“Bachelorette”) has burdened them with so much insensitivity and gauche behavior.
And much like Cody's script for Juno that has references to Soupy Sales flying from the mouths of babes, this gem has a college girl in 2002 warning a prospective beau not to reference The Graduate on learning that her name is "Elaine" when, you know, "Seinfeld".
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(Lest we somehow not pick up on Headland’s Reiner affinity, there’s also a scene with the pseudo couple lounging on the sofa, watching another of the director’s biggies, “Misery.”)
In Headland’s world, every moment seems skillfully crafted, so that even an offhanded gag about the movie Misery evolves into a touching pay off.
Leslye Headland's Sleeping With Other People is a Photoshop copy of When Harry Met Sally... clone-stamped and saturated.
Everything in this hoax is a cliché inspired by a dozen other B-movies about the same subject, from No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher to Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake.
Everything in this hoax is a cliché inspired by a dozen other B-movies about the same subject, from No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher to Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake.
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The notion of sex addicts falling in love is a promising one for a romantic comedy—so promising, in fact, that another, far better movie, 2013’s Thanks for Sharing already beat Headland to it.
(It’s to When Harry Met Sally what When Harry Met Sally was to Annie Hall.)