Men, Women & Children (2014)
Directed by Jason Reitman
Follows the story of a group of high school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives.
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What critics say influenced Men, Women & Children
It’s clear he’s using “American Beauty” as the model (as is its distributor, who are treating it like awards bait).
If Best Picture Oscar winners “American Beauty’’ and “Crash’’ had a millennial baby, it would probably look a lot like Jason Reitman’s “Men, Women & Children,’’ a darkly comic, sexually charged drama about suburban ennui in the age of iPhones and iPads.
Jason Reitman's latest Oscar bait reaches for the zeitgeist like no Hollywood movie since American Beauty (1999), and you have to give him credit for thinking big even though he drives the theme into your skull with a ball-peen hammer.
Hannah is the movie’s equivalent to Mena Suvari’s cheerleader in “American Beauty” — the All-American teen sexpot who’s less knowing than she seems — and her squad-mate Allison (Elena Kampouris) is a secret starver who trolls pro-ana websites (Google it, mom) and throws herself at a callous football bro (Will Peltz).
Actually, she’s just a remake of the Mena Suvari character from American Beauty.
All of the above doesn’t even do justice to how much topicality the film crams into those stories, or the juxtaposition of the whole thing with Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” as the Voyager 1 made its way into the recesses of space, or Emma Thompson’s American Beauty-esque omniscient narration over it all.
The choice to have some omniscient presence narrate everything (and in the upper-class accents of Emma Thompson, no less) is a terrible one; it's the same device Todd Field tried in "Little Children" and it distances us from people we need to feel.
Director Jason Reitman hews very closely to Kultgen's (far superior) 2011 book, with the filmmaker, at the outset, effectively capturing the source material's specific tone and atmosphere (ie it's often quite reminiscent of Tom Perrotta's body of work, Little Children especially).
An ensemble piece sardonically narrated in the third-person by Emma Thompson (think Little Children by way of Thompson's own Stranger Than Fiction), Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children paints a glum picture of the Internet's hold over the American middle-class.
It’s narration that says “classy,” that says — with a wink, of course — “Americans are fools,” that says, “Hey, fussy voice-over worked for Todd Field’s vaguely similar Little Children.”
J.K. Simmons shows up as her dad in a role that feels an awful lot like it was cut to pieces in the editing room; as it stands he seems like a series of outtakes of his similar part in Reitman’s “Juno.”
And it doesn't feel like the work of Jason Reitman, who made a sterling debut with a string of smart comedies: Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air, Juno and, best of all, Young Adult.
Moments that would serve as table setting in most films are the primary make-up of “Men, Women & Children,” a fragmented, overstuffed, and frequently compelling picture from Jason Reitman (“Juno,” “Up In The Air”).
The inherent issues raised by increasingly intelligent electronics could use the Reitman of "Juno," so facile in pondering the hard decisions made by a wry and remarkably wise pregnant teen.
You’ll find no brazen cynicism (“Thank You for Smoking,”), no smug sarcasm (“Juno”), no weary sophistication (“Up in the Air”).
Reitman, who also directed Juno, knows how to work with young actors, and the film’s many teen-agers acquit themselves well.
If Best Picture Oscar winners “American Beauty’’ and “Crash’’ had a millennial baby, it would probably look a lot like Jason Reitman’s “Men, Women & Children,’’ a darkly comic, sexually charged drama about suburban ennui in the age of iPhones and iPads.
Like Paul Haggis’ Crash , which reduced everything in the world to racial conflict in a way that made racism look like a deranged conspiracy theory rather than an ugly fact of life, Men, Women & Children uses its microcosm of interconnected lost souls to draw sweeping generalizations that amount to overwrought scaremongering.
Paul Haggis’s Crash is one of the best examples how divisive they can be, and many are referring to Men, Women & Children as “Crash for the internet.”
That’s what Crash is missing: Mary Poppins rolling her eyes.
People use the Internet for sex! Revelations abound in Jason Reitman's "Crash"-like screed "Men, Women & Children"…
Given the breadth of the story, and Reitman’s wise choice not to try to connect everybody in Crash-like fashion, some sections of Men, Women & Children work better than others.
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In case it isn’t already obvious, Reitman, who co-wrote the script with Erin Cressida Wilson ("Chloe," "Fur," "Secretary") wants to make it clear that there is so much to discover and appreciate about our existence, you just have to log off and look at the stars or at the person in front of you.
The subject of technological tyranny in ordinary lives isn’t quite as compelling as the filmmakers may think, and Reitman, who co-wrote the screenplay with Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary) sometimes skim reads the movie’s characters and situations.
In adapting Chad Kultgen’s 2011 novel, which introduced itself with a chapter-one riff on Kelly Ripa’s anus, Jason Reitman and his co-writer Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary) manage to be both prudish and eye-rollingly vulgar.
The uncommonly perceptive script by Reitman and Erin Cressida Wilson (“Secretary”) — adapted from a novel by Chad Kultgen — isn’t afraid to go to some very dark places.
Here, Reitman enlisted as co-writer Erin Cressida Wilson, whose previous feature films ( Secretary , Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus and Chloe) dealt with sexual kinks, to lend authority to a synoptic take on a society drenched in virtual venery.
Patricia Beltmeyer (Jennifer Garner, "Juno") audits her daughter's every keystroke, but Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever, "The Spectacular Now," "Short Term 12") creates a new online identity and forms a deep bond with depressed teen Tim Mooney (Ansel Elgort, "The Fault in Our Stars").
Kaitlyn Dever (2013's " The Spectacular Now ") and Ansel Elgort (2014's " The Fault in Our Stars ") portray the most even-keeled of all the characters on screen, and, while Brandy and Tim are dealing with their own respective issues, the bond they form is healthier than any other relationship in sight.
And it may be that filmmakers who have come of age in Screenland will be the best equipped to deal with it — like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose excellent, too-little-seen “Don Jon” (2013) covers this territory without ever talking down to its audience.
Fine performances from Sandler and DeWitt help give their story line an emotional underpinning, but only one situation here -- Chris' debilitating porn habit -- feels genuinely relevant (and even that was explored with more humor and sensitivity in last year's "Don Jon").