My coworker was telling me how well Jerry Maguire stands up today and I forced myself to remember the major beats of that piece of shit:

  1. Big company bad and evil; small start up good and pure.

  2. Being principled always pays off in the end.

  3. Everyone can make it if they try hard, believe in themselves, and believe in each other.

  4. We can have perfect interpersonal relations if we just learn to balance work and life appropriately, and it's up to us to accept that challenge.

Fuck this movie. More importantly fuck people who like this movie. Jerry would have turned out just like his old firm buddies (even if the major plot points largely stay the same). Everyone in this movie is actively trying to exploit each other in the beginning. And even though it's totally inconsequential to how bad these people are in their shitty lives, if you ask me the most unbelievable part is when Jerry and Bridget Jones get back together at the end.

Not buying it.

Tell me about the shitty liberal movies that are renting space in your head.

  • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    You could emphasize the role of racism prior to his getting lucky as a stockbroker, emphasize the role his wife played while he wasn't getting paid (providing free childcare, show how the private medical system influenced him to drop his previous interest in training as a physician to trying to sell medical equipment before meeting a guy driving a Ferrari who convinced him to pursue being a stock broker, etc.

    A lot of bootstraps type stories are about how am individual rose above their circumstances by their own ability- but none of us are really able to do that, it's up to the community as a whole and/or random fate. And there's plenty of this guy who tried and tried and screwed their family over and in the end, they have nothing to show for it. It's a choice to pick the 1 who succeeded over the 100s that don't.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I heard an interview on the radio with a famous singer who advised that if you want to be a singer you should commit fully and have no backup plan. Which is alright for him he made it but what about all the people who tried that and failed they don't get radio interviews