Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Easing the Old Quarter Life Crisis

I don't usually go out at 9:30 pm on a school night. I may stay out past that time but usually once I'm home past 8 or so I'm home for good. Last Thursday night was an exception. I headed to the 10 pm showing of the film Happythankyoumoreplease at E Street because it was apparently the last time that this area will get to see this well-done film with a great soundtrack in a theater setting. Because now it seems to be gone - one can only hope that the Avalon's small upstairs theatre or Josh at West End might resurrect it. As I went to buy a ticket, the marquee said HTYMP or something like that, so that's what I asked the 20-something attendant for a ticket for. She looked at me funny and said it sounded like a porn thing or something. She laughed.
"Is it good?" I asked.
"Oh yes, very good. It portrays the quarter-life crisis in excellent detail."
"The what?" I asked.
"The quarter life crisis."
"There is such a thing?"
"I've been looking for a [full-time] job for six months now. Yes, there is one."
So the biggest problem with this movie might be the title. Who came up with that? I would guess the writer/director/star Josh Radnor, but someone should have got him to change it. Anyway, it's an intelligent movie about a group of quarter-life friends with one contrivance that it takes a little getting past. (He does a good deed by stepping in to help a 10-year-old boy who is lost and abandoned on the subway. But then he kind of keeps him as a Little Brother.)
Otherwise, the relationships that this movie draws up are very believable and sometimes even poignant as is the case with his friend Annie. His love interest is named Kate Mara, and she is everything that Gwyneth Paltrow used to be before she became what she is now. Mara sings the last song of a  really cool soundtrack - it's a departure from the indie folk stuff that we've heard up until then. It's Sing Happy by Kander and Ebb of Cabaret fame and it knocked my cotton socks off.
I will let you know when this film is available to see either in a theater or on rental. And when the nice quarter-life woman at the boxc office gets a real job. As much as I like the film, I hope she comes first.  

1 comment:

  1. It must be true -- it's got its own wikipedia entry! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter-life_crisis

    ReplyDelete