IN THOSE MOMENTS WHERE YOU'RE NOT QUITE SURE IF THE UNDEAD ARE REALLY DEAD-DEAD, DON'T GET ALL STINGY WITH YOUR BULLETS: Name your favorite non-Social Network film of Jesse Eisenberg's. (For me: with all apologies to occasional ALOTT5MA reader Rhett Reese, it's The Squid and the Whale, a painful and personal film I'm glad I saw once, and am pretty sure I'll keep it to once.)
We will be Covering-It-Live the Oscars on Sunday night, fyi.
I absolutely loved Adventureland.
ReplyDeleteTough call for me between Roger Dodger and Adventureland. I'd have to rewatch both to decide.
ReplyDeleteIt's the Squid and the Whale, even including Social Network. Dean Wareham > Trent Reznor.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved Adventureland. Great cast, outstanding soundtrack. And I think they did a good job of reflecting the time period. Frankly, I've at least partially enjoyed all the movies in which I've seen him (Roger Dodger, The Squid and the Whale, The Education of Charlie Banks), though I haven't seen Zombieland yet. I guess he also was in The Emperor's Club - that bad Dead Poets Society knockoff that starred Kevin Kline - but I don't remember him from it.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I barely remember it, I take pride in having been a regular viewer of Get Real, the otherwise forgettable family TV drama that cast Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway as siblings.
The only one I've seen is Adventureland. So...Adventureland.
ReplyDelete(No, I still haven't seen Zombieland yet! Get off my back!)
Still haven't seen Adventureland, altho it's on my "to-view" list. Loved Zombieland. [Double tap.]
ReplyDeleteNot having seen Squid, I'll go with The Hunting Party, a movie so good that even Richard Gere is good in it.
ReplyDeleteI thought Get Real was pretty good, though not top notch.
ReplyDeleteThe Squid and the Whale was heavily cathartic for me -- it hit some home truths about my parents' divorce square on, and I had to watch it a bunch of times to master the power it had over me. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteHaving thought about it some more, I think he gives the better performance in Roger Dodger, but Adventureland is the better film.
ReplyDeleteThe Squid and the Whale, but I'm with Adam: one viewing of that movie was enough for me. It was so painful to watch.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Squid and the Whale but agree with those above who said they never want to see it again. Partially for that reason and partially because I think it's a really well done movie, I will say Zombieland.
ReplyDelete(I was going to start listing Michael Cera films, but that would have been a very bad joke. I will instead refer to this: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/vultures_flowchart-based_guide_1.html)
I'm with Watts on this being a tie between these two films for me, and needing to see both again to make the call. Have not seen Zombieland or Squid and the Whale, so I can't comment on those.
ReplyDeletePhoto finish between Rodger Dodger and Squid and the Whale.
ReplyDeleteDitto on Squid and the Whale, and also ditto on never needing to see it again. I liked Adventureland, but both Eisenberg's performance and the movie overall are better for TSqATW.
ReplyDeleteWill be missing Cover It Live as I'm hosting my annual bash. (Anyone here from Chicago is welcome - let me know and I'll add you to the evite. You're welcome even if you're not from Chicago, of course....)
And I'll be there, in case anyone wants to randomly show up and argue about Rush!
ReplyDelete(Kidding, Marsha, really!)
I've been sort of an apostale for Adventureland among my friends, as I lived through a similar summer myself. I thought it really captured the melancholy and lonliness of going back to your hometown, with "friends" you barely like and shitty jobs to suffer through, and the sort of heightened reality a summer like that can take on. Ryan Reynolds is really good in a slightly more complex role than it first seems, plus it's always nice to see Bill Hader work.
ReplyDeleteAs a really minor-keyed, quarterlife crisis-y sort of love story, I really love it.
Apostle, not apostate, right?
ReplyDeleteI loved TSN, liked Zombieland, and was neutral on Adventureland, but Eisenberg was the worst thing about the latter two and was properly unlikeable in the first, which suggests to me that I just don't like Jesse Eisenberg.
ReplyDeleteDan Suitor: "it's always nice to see Bill Hader work" -- I don't get this. Bill Hader works all the time. He is in every comedy movie and most television shows. He does voice-over work when the camera isn't working. He is an uncredited behind-the-scenes brainstormer for South Park. He appears on every talk show and in everything where a bunch of people are filmed being funny. I'm not complaining about this, because I love Bill Hader, but "not working" has not been a problem of his in the last four or five years.
After Iron Man, I decided that every movie should have surprise Samuel L. Jackson after the credits. Similarly, every "thing where a bunch of people are filmed being funny" could probably benefit from a bit of Bill Hader. Love him.
ReplyDeleteI kind of like "apostale" as a portmanteau of apostle and apostate. I'm going to use that word to describe Elmer Gantry from now on.
ReplyDeleteSquid and the Whale, as it's the only one I've seen. I'd probably have it ahead of Social Network, actually.
ReplyDeleteMy friend Jesse and I had this brainstorm one day about how funny it would be if every movie included a blooper reel starring Dom Deluise and Burt Reynolds.
ReplyDeleteOur favorite hypothetical was Schindler's List.
Why is the Oscars up against part 2 of The Amazing Race premiere?!? And why didn't I get a dual tuner DVR?
ReplyDeletePaul, ever seen their appearance on Robot Chicken, reprising their parts (in action figure form) from Cannonball Run? Naturally, there's a blooper reel.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to lose cool points for this for sure, but I didn't like Squid and the Whale (and I have like Noah Baumbach since Kicking and Screaming which I watched weekly in college) and I loved Zombieland. I usually like movies similar to S&W, but just couldn't bring myself to care.
ReplyDeleteI usually host an Oscar party, and during the awards have my laptop open to follow your Cover it Live, but this year we are going to the local independent theater for big screen viewing and trivia (which is really the whole reason, because I do love some Oscar trivia). I will miss the banter here though, as this blog always makes award shows better!
I expect that the third movie in the Eisenberg 'Land' trilogy will be his best.
ReplyDeleteHere's the blurb:
"Sudetenland" starring Jesse Eisenberg as a young Ethnic German, but secretly Jewish, soldier who wryly navigates a dangerous path between seeming enthusiasm for the nazification of his Czech home and the clandestine aid he tenders to his endangered relatives. Amanda Seyfried co-stars as his love interest, an unabashedly pro-Hitler waitress at his neighborhood Ratskeller who he awkwardly pursues despite her abhorrent political beliefs. The film comes to a poignant, yet hilarious, conclusion as both strands of his life conflict at the 1938 Oktoberfest...
My bad. I've been an <span>apostate so long that I haven't seen the word "apostle" in print for years.</span>
ReplyDeleteYou're thinking in the present tense, Isaac. Back in the Spring of '09 he had fallen off a bit. He had a good '07 with bit parts in Knocked Up and Hot Rod, as well as a pretty good sub-supporting role as Seth Rogen's cop partner in Superbad. Between those and Adventureland, a span of two years, he pretty much only had a good supporting part in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a notable scene in Pineapple Express, and a bit part in Tropic Thunder.
ReplyDeleteI just happen to really like Bill Hader. The more the better.
http://moviemiscellany.com/2011/02/rules-for-surviving-zombieland/
ReplyDeleteWait a minute. Rhett Reese? Really?
ReplyDelete'Cause I loves me some Joe Schmo.
I really liked Squid and the Whale. It falls neatly into one of my two favorite kinds of movie: (1) movies that end with a dance-off and (2) movies where people are really mean to each other. So as not to spoil the movie, I won't say which category Squid and the Whale fits into.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to love my spec script, "Mama's Family Salsa Challenge."
ReplyDeleteMine is called The Anniversary Party-Down!
ReplyDelete