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:
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Big company bad and evil; small start up good and pure.
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Being principled always pays off in the end.
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Everyone can make it if they try hard, believe in themselves, and believe in each other.
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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.
I got so viscerally mad at the lead character in the movie, and so for better or worse this movie made an impression on me. I was so disgusted with this character it had me wondering if the movie was actually good. Like, to evoke such a reaction. The elder abuse was particularly angering as it was kind of played for laughs and i guess we were supposed to think it was kind of okay because, like you said, Russian mob. On the other hand, it's probably more like a rorschach test or something. What I saw was abhorrent but others might've found themselves titillated by the extreme self interest and terribleness of the characters. Like Scorcese making movies that he claims are scathing indictments of his subjects and you are supposed to hate or something, but most people see it as normative and good (and tbf, that is a pretty reasonable impression to develop in a world under capitalism). I agree with your takeaway one hundred percent
That has occured to me as well, but it's all so ham-fisted and unapologetic that I can't make myself believe it. It's maddening.🤷♂️