Unfortunately, it falls into incredibly predictable territory as Sidney gives up his standards in return for advancement and then doubts whether it's worth trading success for a chance at real love. "How to Lose Friends" comes close to finding the same equilibrium. The British comedic actor impressed with his breakthrough British comedies "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" - both of which are smart enough while seeming dumb.
That's not necessarily all to the bad, since Pegg's good cheer is hard to resist.
But where there might be biting observation, there are mostly pratfalls, "limpy pig" dances and full-frontal nudity. There is some satire here of the entertainment industry: its velvet ropes, its "in-crowd," its celebrity coddling. Only fellow scribe Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst) can tolerate him. It's not his ethics that make him enemies so much as his boorish behavior. "Hacks do not take orders from flacks," he insists. And he won't play the industry standard games of cow-towing to publicist demands to land an interview. He doesn't hesitate to call a highly regarded young director a twit. He doesn't bat an eye at asking a musical comedy star if he's Jewish or if he's gay. (Never mind Fleet Street's rabid celebrity obsession.) Indeed, Sidney is at one point described as "a British person born in New Jersey."īut the one cultural difference Sidney is most proud of is his refusal to join in - as portrayed here - American-style fawning over celebrities. But when did we Yanks become the straight men? After centuries of casting the British - with their etiquette and their tea - as the boring ones, the international scales of stereotype may be tipping the other way. In "How to Lose Friends," Americans are the ones that need to loosen up.
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