Review: The Internship

If you follow me at all on social media (and you should, I'm hilarious), you'll know that I have been ridiculously excited about the new Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson collaboration, The Internship. The primary reason for my excitement is Dylan O'Brien (Stuart), because I am a huge Teen Wolf fan, and Dylan is going to have an amazing career. I have been anxiously awaiting the opening of this film, to be able to see Dylan on the big screen for the first time since...um...The First Time.

Yesterday I managed to score tickets to an advance screening of the film in honor of New York City's Internet Week, something I hadn't even heard of until I showed up at the theater and people were wearing badges. Josh Brener (Lyle) introduce the movie, which was pretty damn cool, as Lyle ended up being one of my favorite characters. (He didn't stick around after, so I couldn't congratulate him on his performance. Bummer.)

I'm going to be honest, my expectations for this movie weren't that high. I was going to see it regardless, because of Dylan. I don't know why I wasn't expecting much, because I really liked Wedding Crashers, which is the last movie Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn did together. I was very pleasantly surprised, because it was much better than I thought it would be. You know how a lot of times, with comedies, they use the best jokes in the trailer, and then the rest of the movie is just kind of lame, because you already saw the best jokes in the trailer? This is not the case with The Internship. I actually think they used the dumbest jokes in the trailer. (For example, Lyle going for a fist bump and requesting the Vince and Owen "fist him".) There were a lot of smarter jokes, though -- internet and fandom and nerd jokes and references that, as a nerd, I really appreciated. (I think I was the only person in the audience who reacted to the Game of Thrones reference.)

There's even an entire scene focused on Quidditch. I don't think you understand how much I freaked out when I learned that they play Quidditch in the movie. My friends have a Quidditch team, I sometimes play pickup Quidditch with them, and when "regular" people find out they give me a look like I'm nuts. So I was eager to see it portrayed on the big screen. Also, Dylan O'Brien playing Quidditch is the sexiest fucking thing I have ever seen. Ever. I have some nitpicks about the actual play (no one had any set positions, and they didn't have enough for a full team) but overall they portrayed it fairly accurately. Also, IT'S QUIDDITCH. IN A BIG STUDIO MOVIE.

The supporting cast did an amazing job. They were appropriately multi-ethnic and just weird enough that you can see why they were the "leftovers" when the interns were asked to divide into groups. Lyle tries to be cool but falls drastically short. Homeschooled Yo-Yo (Tobit Raphael) has a tendency to pluck his eyebrows as punishment for failure. Neha (Tiya Sircar) is full of false bravado and a dirty imagination. Stuart puts on an "I'm too cool for everything" act and cloaks his insecurities in sarcasm. But Billy (Vaughn) and Nick (Wilson) inspire them to come together as a team to complete the required challenges that are part of the internship program.

Billy and Nick's main obstacle is overcoming the generational gap between them and their twenty-something teammates. That's the hook of the movie, after all -- two relics from a bygone era are forced to fight for jobs in a world that they know absolutely nothing about. They're allowed to enter the internship program because of their life and career experience, but once in they actually have to keep up. That's the real challenge they face. It's a great message, that you can teach old dogs new tricks.

However, it isn't enough that they have to deal with their own shortcomings, so the film gives you a physical antagonist in the form of Graham (Max Minghella), a stuck-up douche with little to no redeeming qualities, who makes it his mission to taunt and destroy Billy and Nick's rag-tag team despite the fact that none of them ever did anything to him. It's not just that he's out to win one of the coveted jobs (the winning team of interns are offered jobs at the end of the program), because he doesn't seem to give a crap about the other teams.

There is a love story, which thankfully takes a backseat. As I said, the film is about Billy and Nick and how they reintegrate themselves into a society and culture that makes no sense to them, so the relationship between Wilson and Rose Byrne (whose character's name I can't remember, and try finding a cohesive character list for this movie, yeesh) is secondary. There is a really great scene where they have their one and only date, which he got by convincing her that she could get a decade's worth of bad decisions over with in one night. She's upset when he's actually charming, because he's supposed to be a jerk -- so then he starts being a (very convincing) jerk to make up for it.

The Internship is a good movie. It's a feel-good movie that teaches people that hard work and dedication can pay off if you stick with it, but also plays up the importance of connecting with people and working as a team. It was really funny, more so than it may seem in the trailer (and I just rewatched the trailer and there are a lot of scenes in it that aren't in the film, like the ping-pong match and the Rubik's Cube competition, what's up with that?), and I think a lot of you are going to enjoy it. If you're a fan of Dylan O'Brien you're going to REALLY enjoy it, because he was fantastic.

On a personal note, I may be in a commercial for the movie. You know how sometimes they have commercials where they show audience reactions? They interviewed us afterwards for one of those. I'm pretty excited about the prospect.

Review: The First Time

I'm not going to lie: for the longest time, I was convinced this movie was some sort of collective hallucination by the fangirls on Tumblr, since the official trailer wasn't even released until several weeks ago, despite the massive amount of .gifs that exist for it. Luckily for myself and all of my fellow Dylan O'Brien fans, this is, in fact, a real movie, and it was released in theaters yesterday...if you live in New York City, Los Angeles, or Phoenix.

I'm not sure why Phoenix and not, say, Chicago, but I strongly suspect - though it isn't really confirmed - that the movie takes place in Phoenix? At least, one of the characters mentions Scottsdale Road, and not saying there couldn't be a Scottsdale Road in other cities, but when I hear Scottsdale, I think, you know, Scottsdale. Also, I used to work in Scottsdale, and the ridiculous houses that some of these characters live in leads me to believe that that's where it's set.

The story of The First Time is simple and well-known: two high school students, Dave (O'Brien) and Aubrey (Britt Robertson), meet at a party on Friday night and have an instant connection, as so often happens in movies of this genre. The obstacles to their budding romance include his massive crush on his friend Jane (Victoria Justice) and her older boyfriend, Ronny (James Frecheville). Not to mention that they have literally only known each other for a couple of days, since the film takes place between Friday night and Monday morning.

I have read a couple of reviews that compare this film to Say Anything or a John Hughes movie like Sixteen Candles, but given the subject matter I was reminded of The Sure Thing (also starring John Cusack, I think I'm beginning to see a pattern - but it's kind of hard not to, John Cusack was in a lot of these types of movies in the 80s). All of these films have one thing in common in that they're coming of age tales about the trials and tribulations of young love. (Also, they're all awesome.)

The film relies heavily on dialogue, which makes sense - the timeline only spans a matter of days and these are high school kids, not Jason Bourne, so a lot of the movie consists of heartfelt discussions about whether or not virginity is meant to be something preciously guarded and what the characters want to do after high school. I think a lot of people will relate to it, both teenagers who are living through those awkward years right now and us older folks who fondly remember what it was like. Not that I have many fond memories of high school, but you get the idea.

Anyway, I am a massive, massive fan of Dylan O'Brien to the point where it's kind of embarrassing, considering my age, but I tried not to let that bias my opinion of The First Time. To be honest, it probably did, but I like to think that I would have enjoyed it just as much with someone else in the main role. Regardless, I think he did a fabulous job and was definitely one of the, if not the, high points of the film. He really held his own, and I think he could be this generation's John Cusack (since we were just talking about him). Because really, he's perfect in these types of roles - he's adorable, he has great comedic timing, and he's attractive but not in an unapproachable or intimidating way. Dave Hodgman is, essentially, Lloyd Dobler or Lane Meyer or Walter Gibson or...some other John Cusack role from the 80s, he had a ton of them.

Dave's best friends Simon (Craig Roberts) and Big Corporation (Lamarcus Tinker) are hilarious. Simon, biting and British, blunders through the film acting like he knows everything about women when he really knows nothing, but Big Corporation reminded me strongly of Silent Bob. Anyone who has ever seen Chasing Amy will see the similarities, especially during Big Corporation's monologue in the diner near the end of the movie.

The other high point of the film, for me at least, was the soundtrack. I have been unable to find a soundtrack listing anywhere and am seriously considering seeing the movie again just to write down the songs as they scroll up the screen during the ending credits. Seriously. The only song I know is The Naked and Famous's "Girls Like You", and that's because it was in the trailer.

If you're able (like, if you live in one of the three cities in which this movie is actually showing) and you like sweet romantic comedies that are cute and endearing, you should see this movie. If you're a fan of Dylan O'Brien and his adorable spasticness, you should definitely see this movie. No, seriously, if you live anywhere near those three cities you should make plans to go see it. If you live near NYC I can tell you that it's playing at the AMC Empire on 42nd St and the Village 7 on 3rd Ave.