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How to Lose Friends and Alienate People | 2008 | R | - 7.4.8

A man (Simon Pegg) tired of a lack of success and recognition, is offered a job with a notable fashion and celebrity magazine in New York. Convinced that he can make a difference and squelch the brown nosing methods of the magazine's staff, he begins to make a name for himself by alienating everyone around him. Also with Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson, Max Minghella, Megan Fox, Miriam Margolyes and Margo Stilley. Directed by Robert B. Weide. [1:49]

SEX/NUDITY 7 - A woman enters a room where several men are gathered and removes her coat: we see her in a corset, a thong and stockings, she dances suggestively, dances while straddling a man's lap, rips off her top (her bare breasts are revealed) and rips off her thong and reveals a penis (we see it in full view); a woman and two young girls enter the room and another man places his hand over the exposed genitals.
 A person that we think is a woman stands nude in front of a man and the man says "penis" implying that the woman is actually a man dressed like a woman (we see a bare back, buttock with a tattoo and upper thigh). A woman wearing a very low-cut dress walks through a swimming pool while people around her watch; she climbs out of the pool and the dress clings, accentuating her form and nipples. We see a fully nude man from the back on the cover of a magazine (his bare back, buttocks and part of his chest are visible). We see a woman wearing a bra and panties in a man's apartment; he wears a robe. We see a man with a towel wrapped around his waist in a steam bath. We see a man wearing boxer shorts and a woman wearing a bra and panties at a party. Women in many scenes wear low-cut dresses and tops that reveal cleavage, bare shoulders and backs. We see a poster of Brigitte Bardot wearing a deep cut dress that reveals cleavage. A man's pants slip down when he is bending over a sofa and his bare back and part of his buttock cleavage are visible.
 A man kisses a younger woman on the cheek. A man follows a woman into a bar and tries to buy her a drink (she leaves). A woman squeezes a man's clothed knee while they are talking. Men and women dance at a nightclub and a man tries to dance with several women who turn away and dance with other partners. A man and a woman dance together. A man and a woman dance close together and she caresses his hair. Men and women dance together. A man watches a woman sleep.
 A woman tells a man that she will have sex with him if he gives her his ring. A woman tells a man that cocaine makes her sexually aroused. A man says that he wants to have sex with a woman before another man does. A remark is made about a man trying to "pick up transsexuals." A man tells a pig that he is leaving in his hotel room "no porn." A man's T-shirt reads "Young, dumb and full of come." A man confronts another man about harassing women by a water cooler.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - A dog jumps to catch a ball, crashes into a closed window and is crushed by a heavy sculpture that is knocked from a high perch (we see the limp animal in a tote bag).
 A man and a woman fight over a ring: they wrestle and she throws him on a table, then they roll around on the floor, and she hits and kicks him repeatedly. A man and a woman fight over a fax machine and we hear them fall to the floor. A woman kicks a man in the leg. A woman slaps a man in the face a few times.
 A man falls off a wall and into some bushes (we see him with bloody knees). A woman stumbles on her shoes and falls on the floor (she's OK). A woman nearly gets her hand caught in an elevator door. A man's hands are pinched as a woman in a car raises the window. A man runs through a large crowd of people chased by security guards, and one person standing near a pool is pushed in the water.
 A man talks about burying a dead dog. A woman talks in a demeaning manner to a man and orders him to do things (jump from one balcony to another outside her apartment, and hop around like an animal). A man talks down to his son and suggests that he is not making anything of himself. A journalist during an interview asks a man if he is Jewish and if he is gay. A party is titled "dress as your favorite dead celebrity."
 A man is forced to his knees to beg for something. In a movie a man rides on a woman's back that is on all fours and slaps her clothed buttock. A man throws himself onto a burning book. We hear gunshots on city streets.
 A man spills a woman's wine on her notebook. A man places a bowl with three dead gold fish on a bar. A woman vomits in a car (we hear retching). A woman gags and runs to the bathroom (it is implied that she vomits). A man coughs out food and it sticks to the back of a woman's white coat (she is not aware). A pig urinates on a woman's shoe, the woman screams and a crowd panics. We see pig feces in several places on a hotel room floor. A man wipes his hand complaining of having touched a man's genitals.

LANGUAGE 8 - About 34 F-words, 15 sexual references, 13 scatological terms, 17 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, 1 exclamation (shut up), name-calling (clipboard Nazi, lookie lews, creep, fat, snarky, bitter, witless, wankers, limpy pig, idiot savant, the one with the wonky eye, losers, stupid), 1 religious profanity, 13 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A man asks another man if he wants to "do some coke," and we see the man later acting inebriated, a woman says I'm wasted and then says she wants some cocaine, and a man mentions "weed." A man smokes a cigarette and drinks alcohol, a woman drinks from a bottle of wine and says that she is going to get drunk, people drink wine and beer at a party, people drink alcohol in many party and celebration scenes, a woman drinks wine at a bar, and a woman who is very dunk tries to drive home, but a man won't let her and drives her home. A man and a woman smoke cigarettes, a man smokes cigarettes in several scenes, and a woman looks through her purse for cigarettes even though she doesn't smoke.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Celebrity, movie stars, Hollywood, publicist driven publishing, stardom, dreams, goals, selling out, philosophy, ideas, sexual harassment, Sodom and Gomorra, Karma, cynicism.

MESSAGE - We should all strive to become a person of value.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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