I don't know how Get a Job ended up on my watchlist —I'm pretty sure though it's because I read a positive review of it— but I know that it's been there for too long so I finally decided to give it a chance.
The film follows Will Davis (Miles Teller), an idealist young man who has just graduated from college. He thinks he has a job lined up after working his ass off as a summer intern but the firm downsize and he needs to find another job. But it's not easy as the work market is saturated with applications and when he returns to his father (Bryan Cranston) for money, he finds out that his father has lost his job and he too is struggling to find a new one.
This is a film that deals with one of the biggest issues in today's society, the inability to find a job, whether you are young and just graduated from college, or you've been laid off after working for decades for the same company. At the same time, it also pokes fun of a generation of Americans where every little accomplishment is rewarded —partecipations trophies. Seriously people, what is wrong with y'all?
It had the potential to be a very interesting and thought-provoking film but unfortunately, the writers didn't bother with writing a decent storyline; they just took a couple of important themes and placed them in a frat boy comedy with no plot whatsoever, unless you consider the many stupid and ridiculous moments as plot points.
The characters too are non-existing. They are so thin, underdeveloped and bland, they are not worth rooting for. Not to mention how artificial and little believable as human beings they are. The only character I cared about was Will's father but the credits certainly do not go to the writers, but only to Cranston for giving such a good performance and portraying in a believable way what a middle-aged man goes through when he loses his job and how hard it is to compete with much younger people.
As for the rest of the cast, Teller somehow manages to engage and entertain you a bit, despite the weak script; the others, they have no idea what to do with this. And that shows in terms of comedy as the film really falls flat in that department. There are scenes, specifically those involving bongs, that are designed/written to make the audience laugh but they come off as bland and boring. Even the stripper scene is dull. I'm not a man and I'm not a lesbian but I'm pretty sure a scene like that is supposed to be dull.
It had the potential to be a very interesting and thought-provoking film but unfortunately, the writers didn't bother with writing a decent storyline; they just took a couple of important themes and placed them in a frat boy comedy with no plot whatsoever, unless you consider the many stupid and ridiculous moments as plot points.
The characters too are non-existing. They are so thin, underdeveloped and bland, they are not worth rooting for. Not to mention how artificial and little believable as human beings they are. The only character I cared about was Will's father but the credits certainly do not go to the writers, but only to Cranston for giving such a good performance and portraying in a believable way what a middle-aged man goes through when he loses his job and how hard it is to compete with much younger people.
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| Lionsgate Premier, CBS Films |
