How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

While the title reads like a self-help book for depressed souls, the film barely scratched the core of its intended nail-biting satire.
Based on a memoir of the same title by Toby Young, the film points out the price of an underground journalism soul in becoming a part of exclusive show business elites. Albeit the cover-ups, we can easily point out real-life references to the media, the people portrayed, the kind of award shows depicted in the film, and the heartbreaking anguish.


The reason why it is easy to do such is simply because the film fails to engage. Not even Simon Pegg, playing the hopeless journalist Sydney Young, with his curious look served well in his comedic staples, could bring up the film to have fun on its own.


It all goes downhill when we are forced to buy his kooky characters to fall head over heels in the tradition of average romantic comedy to Kirsten Dunst, otherwise semi-pro in the genre. While Dunst bears no burden and struts her presence easily, Pegg has to catch up with her, as his uncomfortable performance grows more noticeable by the minutes.


The film cannot decide whether it aims to be fully social satire, or a romantic comedy. The nail-biting story of media manipulation is enough to stand on its own without having to be forced to a dopey love story. How to Lose Friends & Alienate People makes The Devil Wears Prada a worthy Best Picture nominee, indeed.


If anything worth remembering from the film, it is Gillian Anderson's scene-stealing presence rather than Megan Fox's forced insertion that in the end made us wonder: even in her debut, she manages to bring down the whole film.

(Watched in DVD, Saturday, January 2, 2010. Source: Lia's. Picture is courtesy of Outnow.)