Toby Young's tell-all memoir about his brief and disastrous career as a Vanity Fair staff writer has been heavily fictionalized for the silver screen, retaining the author's dishy insouciance but changing the names to protect the not-so-innocent. Simon Pegg stars as Sidney Young, editor of a small British imitation of Spy. Sidney's work attracts the attention of Sharps editor Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges in a thinly disguised portrayal of VF's Graydon Carter), who hires the irreverent Brit. Dazzled by the heady New York lifestyle—not to mention the promise of fame and fortune—Sidney plunges into his work but almost immediately runs afoul of his boss, as well as his supervisor (Danny Huston), a powerful press agent (Gillian Anderson), and the one colleague whose opinion he values (Kirsten Dunst, badly miscast). Robert B. Weide, helming his first feature film after directing such popular sitcoms as Curb Your Enthusiasm, effectively conveys the take-no-prisoners mindset germane to high-powered celebrity journalism, and the actors milk the script's snarky dialogue for every drop of snide humor, but in the end How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is an uneven, semi-fangless adaptation that loses much of its satiric bite too early on. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one by director Robert Weide and costar Simon Pegg; the second with Weide only), a 19-minute “making-of” featurette, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a flawed comedy.] (E. Hulse)
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
MGM, 110 min., R, DVD: $27.99, Feb. 17 Volume 24, Issue 2
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
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