I wanted to start off with a movie that's on Netflix so it would be easy for everyone to watch along with the blog. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of Albert Brooks' movies are currently on Netflix, so I will have to do a blog post on Real Life and Looking for Comedy in the Modern World later this month, because those are the only one I haven't seen before besides this one.
One of my favorite things about an Albert Brooks movie is he doesn't beat around the bush to send his characters on the journey you paid to see. This one is no different. About 5 minutes or so into the movie our protagonist, played by Brooks, breaks up with his girlfriend and begins his new life as a single man.
There is a scene shortly after the break-up where Brooks takes quaaludes and walks around his house calling his friend and telling him that he loves him, calling a random girl in his rolodex that he doesn't know and asking her out on a date, putting on an album and immediately taking it off because it's too sad, then finally sleeping in his car while Queen plays on the radio. This scene lasts about 10 minutes, yet somehow it doesn't go on too long. This is also one of the most genuine portrayals of having a bad time on drugs I've ever seen in a movie, which just makes the scene hit that much harder. This movie is filled with these long comedic set pieces that are so well written and so well preformed they never overstay their welcome.
A couple of these long scenes take place in the editing bay, where Brooks works on editing a sci-fi B-movie. One in particular they are doing sound mixing for the film. Brooks is the only one in the room that actually cares and he has to work with and against his apathetic coworkers to foley the scene. I have a link to the scene below, because describing it just wouldn't do it justice.
Despite the rolodex I mentioned a few paragraphs earlier, this movie is not dated one bit. It actually holds up really well today. It's probably the most ahead of it's time of all of Brooks' movies I've seen. The movie depicts love in a very honest and bleak way. Brooks struggles with jealousy throughout this film and it is very apparent that it's something he's probably not going to overcome anytime soon. His jealousy is what keeps him coming back to her and it's ultimately what breaks them up over and over again. In, Defending Your Life, (another Brooks movie) Brooks has a monologue about how his wife was too pretty for him, he went on to say that he has a theory that any excess prettiness comes with too many problems. I think "too many problems" is code for jealousy. Apparently Kubrick called Brooks after Modern Romance came out and asked him how he made a movie about jealousy, and that he's always wanted to make a movie about jealousy. There really isn't much higher praise than that.
I can't recommend this movie enough. It's definitely the funniest movie I've seen by Brooks. I'm not sure where it ranks overall though. I probably need to watch it a few more times to make that decision. Hopefully Brooks' work being on Netflix will bring him a little more recognition because he really does deserve it. Let me know what you think of the movie. I'd love to get a discussion going here.
Thanks for reading!
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