Get a Job
Dustin Chase
There is a reason this movie looks and feels like it was made in 2012, because it was. It was shelved because it’s a piece of crap. First time writers Kyle Pennekamp and Scott Turpel haven’t worked since. It’s a shame, because the cast, minus the intolerable Mintz-Plasse (Neighbors, Movie 43), are all accomplished, talented and usually great in comedy. The two screenwriters have written this joyless and unfunny comedy in some warped universe where they seemed to have skipped every single other “loser comedy” that already exploded the same jokes for the past ten years. Get a Job also fully exploits false advertising in its marketing, especially the poster which features Kendrick (Pitch Perfect) who is barely in the film.
Roger Davis (Cranston) gives his son Will (Teller) some money to prepare for the job hunting road ahead. Will instead takes that money and buys a new flat screen for him and his pot smoking roommates. Disgusted with his inability to grow up and be an adult, his girlfriend Jillian (Kendrick) forces him to start job hunting. At almost the same moment Will lands a video editing job for a high profile job placement firm, his father is laid off. The two men switch roles and meet in the middle on their journey to maturity. Will and all his roommates must step out into the world and take on responsibility.
The films worse offense is the portrayal of women.
Like most movies that centers on “loser” characters unable to function in society, this one doesn’t have the decency or the brains to even explore how Will got to this point. Early in the film Jillian questions how Will was so driven in college but now has completely changed. We see no evidence of lazy or uninspired parents. Basically Get a Job just wants to make fun of young adults who find maturity frightening. Yet it’s the misunderstanding of these individuals and even the jokes that fall flat and make this comedy so thoughtless and boring.
Cranston (Trumbo) should actually be glad he isn’t featured on the poster, despite having equal screen time to Teller. The films worse offense is the portrayal of women. Kendrick’s Jillian for example is only ever shown on screen as either a sexual object or cleaning up after the boys. Likewisem, Oscar winner Harden (Mystic River) runs the company where Will now works and is shown as power hungry and controlling. There is no sense in trying to dissect this film because it’s a complete disaster, easily one of the worst releases of 2016. Director Dylan Kidd (Roger Dodger, P.S.) hasn’t had much success since discovering Jesse Eisenberg back in 2002.
Final Thought
A deplorable comedy about losers that is anything but funny.