Movie Review: I Love You, Man

I was destined to love this film for 2 reasons: #1: The title reminds me of ‘Almost Famous,’ and an eleven year old William Miller: “Take good care of her in San Francisco. Man.” #2: I love Paul Rudd. So, I went in with high expectations and I wasn’t disappointed. It just came out last weekend, so I won’t spend too much time fawning all over it, so y’all have a chance to see it and decide for yourself (this is a spoiler-free review).

The premise of the movie is that Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones are going to get married. He realizes he has no real guy friends. The search for a Best Man is initiated:



Here are three things I loved about the movie:

1. It continues the lovely trend of blurring the line between “chick flick” and “man’s movie” - movies that are hilarious (the chest waxing scene in ‘40 Year Virgin’ while also being pretty sweet (The resolution of ‘Knocked Up.’). Think about it: A "bromance" buddy movie is a romantic comedy gussied up with some gross-out humor and a guy-on-guy relationship. They’re movies that every segment of the population can enjoy. (Speaking of guy-on-guy relationships – I truly appreciate how Not Homophobic this movie was. It could have gone there – the way a lot of buddy films do, and this one truly reflected the time and cultural context by not.
   
2. Paul Rudd’s character was such a dork in this movie – dorkier than you’d expect to relate to (he fences!) – but it’s just so endearing.
3. Featuring JK Simmons (he of ‘Juno’ and ‘Spiderman’, Andy Samberg, Jane Curtin, Jon Favreau, Jaime Pressley, and almost everyone who’s ever appeared on the Daily Show, the supporting cast was hilarious (Especially Jaime Pressley: I don’t want to love her, but I always find myself falling for her – even in ‘Not Another Teen Movie.’ Not that I saw that.).

Here are three things I didn’t love:

1. I know that Rashida Jones isn’t Karen (aka the almost-destroyer of Jim & Pam on ‘The Office.’) I know that. But, it still requires a serious effort for me to not automatically react with hatred to everything she does. This movie helped. But she looks much too pretty in bright yellow – a color most of us can come nowhere close to pulling off.
   
   
   
2. Dear Jason Segal: Your teeth are awful. Please stop smoking. Love, Ashley
3. There was this guy in Paul Rudd’s office – “Tevin.” The casting director clearly wished this character was being played by Bradley Cooper. I was distracted by that. Oh, also: I don't know anything about Rush, the band the two eventual BFFs bond over.

Yeah, not too many serious bones to pick. 8 Twix bars!