4. Jeff, Who Lives At Home
Mumblecore directors Jay & Mark Duplass (Cyrus) have slowly, quietly been mining their own genre over the past few years; now thanks to producer Jason Reitman they’ve stepped up their game with the brothers creating their first real gem. ‘Jeff, Who Lives At Home’ stars Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) in the title role as an unemployed dreamer who inspired by the movie ‘Signs’ goes on a mini adventure thanks to a seemingly random ‘wrong phone call’. Along the way he tries to help with brother Ed Helms’ (The Hangover, Cedar Rapids) failing relationship. This tiny indie all builds up to one nerve-wracking finale, a real impressive set piece that left me in awe. Inspiring stuff for a film made on such a small budget and in a year where The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises look set to destroy Box Office records; this little film with big ideas is very refreshing.
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8 Comments
I have to completely disagree with Jeff Who Lives at Home, in my opinion it was pretty weak. I thought it was lacking, it wasn’t funny but it didn’t really compensate in other ways like Funny People or 50/50 for example. I would certainly put Chronicle in over it personally, and if we’re going by UK release then The Muppets would be in my top 5, no film has put a smile on my face quite like that for some years!
Hi Curtis thanks for the reply, personally I thought ‘Jeff’ had great, believable characters and the final scene was very emotional (not as much as 50/50 tho)whereas Chronicle had 2D characters and the ‘found footage’ style was very forced. The last third of Chronicle was amazing yeh but very forgettable, I was much more connected to ‘Jeff’ and as a filmmaker, inspired by how they made a great film on such a small budget.
Hey Adam, I’m a big fan of Jason Segel (Big up the Muppets again *cough*)…but I didn’t feel he fit well with Ed Helms, who I thought was miscast. I’ll give you the final scene was moving, but personally it didn’t make up for what had gone before and wasn’t emotional to the extent to make me forget that I hadn’t really enjoyed the majority of the film.
Haha, I didn’t think much to The Muppets, sorry. Yeah I can see your point. I think I just went in with no expectations and enjoyed the change of pace. I liked the humour, I liked the characters.
The Muppets was awesome good sir! I challenge you to a duel, sock puppets at dawn!
so You guys have an article on how Prometheus was a dissapointment now you have an article on how its been the best movie so far of the year…
different writers, different opinions.
We don’t all have the same opinions and different writers offer different perspectives, if anything offering two sides to an argument is a good thing in my eyes.