Friends With Benefits

Friends With Benefits (Will Gluck, 2011)

From the director of the refreshing Easy A, Will Gluck directs a lesser but still entertaining film that revisits the clichés of the genre it fells into. Friends With Benefits, wants to dissect and remodel the romantic comedy in a way that wnats to be something like a When Harry Met Sally. Two adults (justin Timberlake and beautiful Mila Kunis) become friends and one day decide to have all the sex without strings attached and the complications that comes with relationships. Even if the story provokes some funny moments others are pretexts to situations of bedroom humour.

The plot wants to be fresh and original, like every movie should be, and in the first and second act it reaches the goal it needs to achieve to brings us somewhere a Hollywood film doesn't really goes. However, the third act goes directly into the cliché and into the path the story tried to avoid since its beginning. A stronger script and the extraction of some filler moments could have benefited (obvious, I know) the film and keep a better pace to the story.

The work of Gluck is interesting because of a regular cast that seems to be built around him; Patricia Clarkson, Emma Stone, etc. A thing that I really appreciated in Easy A was the supporting cast that was very efficient and the construction of an effective supporting characters that isn't written for a lone purpose. the presence of Woody Harrelson is also surprisingly funny.

Even if you are not into the best comedy of the year, Friends With Benefits assures you a good laugh and a nice time.  Worth a look for the synergy of the two leads and their general beauty.

Easy A

Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010)

This intelligent teen comedy, wait did I really wrote that? Yes, it is an intelligent teen comedy that describes best this Emma Stone (Zombieland) movie where the main character, Olive, pretends to have lost her virginity to get rid of her annoying friend. Beginning as a little lie, this declaration of her faked sexual exploits snowballs into the great story of Easy A. First, she’ll pretend to sleep with guys who have problems to replace their popularity in school. Shortly after, her reputation will catch her up and the helpful girl will have to deal with the consequences of her declarations.

The supporting cast is large and looks like if everybody (Stanley Tucci, Lisa Kudrow, Amanda Bynes, Patricia Clarkson, Malcolm McDowell, Fred Armisen, Thomas Haden Church, Penn Badgley) wanted to appear in this fresh good hearted comedy. Olive’s family is funny, present, supportive and finally the parents (Patrica Clarcson and Staley Tucci) aren’t strict stubborn or stupid useless characters. What’s putting apart Easy A is how it falls into the cliché then uses it and turn it upside down to analyzes the whole thing with Olive’s podcast. Easy A wants to be in the 2010’s what John Hugues teenager comedies were, intelligent, thoughtful, and moments that the teenagers of its time could rely to and understand the feelings of its characters. The many references to Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueler’s Day Off, Breakfast Club, etc., aren’t put there just for nostalgia, they refer to great teen flicks and a standard that’s haven’t been achieved for a long time. This is the perfect example of a modest but brilliant film that doesn’t take people for idiots and ignorant.

Moreover, this is a fun film to watch and the story is as original as you may have hoped it to be. It doesn’t fall into the easy penis jokes that the teen comedies like American Pie and Seth Rogen have set as standards and that seemed like the only way to make laugh the younger generations. Even if those comedies where the fat laughter is permitted, sometimes you need meat around the bone... (sorry this one was too easy)

If you want a fun movie with intelligent lines and an original screenplay describing with exactitude the high school life we all lived with the chit-chat, the rumours, the attitude, the gangs, etc. For once, a movie that speaks to you, that makes you think in the same time that you have a load of entertainment. Watch this film it’s for your own good.