by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The Alison Brie vehicle “Somebody I Used To Know” once was just the type of movie that I would really love. It’s the type of movie that would have been a Blockbuster staple. It’s got one of my favorite actresses in it and, apparently, enough T&A to placate my inner horndog. (I only say that because I’ve just begun to struggle to watch the movie and don’t know much about what actually goes on.)
Several things are at play.
One is, I’m older and my standards have gone up to the point that I struggle, I STRUGGLE to watch ANY movie all the way through. I did manage to watch Barbie and Oppenheimer all the way through, but that is the exception to the rule.
Also, as someone who has been fixated on storytelling for much of my life and especially now after years of developing and writing a novel….I just grow restless at a movie that obviously was produced by Brie and as, such, she is willing to be a bit more provocative to try to draw in viewers.
This is the same dynamic as Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings. Both of these movies would have been HUGE in the 1980s or 1990s. People are so dumb and horny that just the idea of either one of these babes showing some skin would have been enough to get people renting. They wouldn’t know, of course, that as producers of these movies, both women had some skin in the game — no pun intended — to make sure that happened by doing some gratuitous T&A.
It is a testament to how The World Really Works that the older women get in Hollywood, the more likely they are to become producers and, as such, whatever concerns they may have had about showing skin in the past seem rather quaint.
Of course there are some women, like Jessica Alba, who remain too modest to show ANY skin to the point that they would rather use a body double or have their clothes digitally removed. Sigh. Ugh. Maybe I’m a dirty old man, but I find something about them being so coy on that front a bit grating. Hollywood is a biz-ness and “double dees, double dees” as the old SNL skit says.
But, whatever, I’m just a lowly middle age man. I don’t have any right to have any qualms on that front.
Anyway. Back to smoking hot Alison Brie. At the moment, I’ve not even gotten to the inciting incident of the movie yet and I pretty much know everything that is going to happen. The thing about Brie is she is so funny in how she toys with the audience in the roles that she takes. One moment she’s a demure yet coquettish community school student, the next she’s a 60s housewife.
I’ve vowed that I’m going to read more and watch more in 2024. As such, I hope to watch Somebody I Used To Know all the
