brief interviews with hideous men

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Astronauts, Robots, French Ladies and Michael Moore to Invade Theaters this Weekend
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
John Krasinski May Need A New Publicist
John Krasinski Is A Hideous Man

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jwiggy
09/26/09

In reply to Astronauts, Robots, French Ladies and Michael Moore to Invade Theaters this Weekend
When does Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 come out?
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Richard Rushfield
09/26/09

@JohnKong: not soon enough
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snugbug
09/25/09

In reply to Astronauts, Robots, French Ladies and Michael Moore to Invade Theaters this Weekend
"A 'researched' decides to study mens' desires in a series of taped interviews"? You're so busted, LOL! You've clearly never read the book nor have seen the movie.
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Edited by snugbug at 09/25/09 7:49 PM snugbug was starred snugbug was unstarred

Richard Rushfield
09/25/09

@snugbug: i may have mis-spelled but i have indeed seen the movie and as much as a point was discernible, thats what it seemed like it was about to.
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Dominant Glee Club
09/08/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
I hope I'm the first person to notice that the name of Dunder Mifflin's CFO is David Wallace.
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Social Crimer
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
I finagled my way into a screening of this. I haven't read the book -- or, more accurately, the story collection -- but I can say with certainty that the book is superior to the film. There are plenty of good things about this movie, but most of them are attributable to the writing. The film comes off like a bunch of (very talented) actors reciting (very good) monologues at an audition (for what could be a very good film), and not as a cohesive film.

Also, I can say *I'm* superior because I've seen this movie already and you haven't. Nyah nyah nyah!

(Don't hate me. I swear I'm a nice person most of the time.)
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snugbug
09/07/09

@Social Crimer: My understanding circa 2007 (maybe outmoded, since Krasinski has worked on this project since he was in college) was that the cleverest narrative device he introduced by way of turning "Brief Interviews.." into a film was the fact that he imagined the book as a series of interviews being organized by a WOMAN working on a thesis of some sort. Pretty clever, I must admit.

She was allegedly supposed to be the prism through which we experience the confessions in the book. Did that change in the final version? Please enlighten us.
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snugbug
09/07/09

@snugbug: Ugh, disregard above. That's what happens when you don't read through a post and jump straight into the comments.
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secretagentman
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
"Prettyboy"? Oh Foster, you are so straight aren't you? I agree with your last point, if the film means more people reading his work, it's a good thing.
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The Defeatery
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
Um, David Foster Wallace died almost a year ago, not earlier this year.
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secretagentman
09/06/09

@The Defeatery: Don't begin your post with 'um', it's rude. Unless you're a 14 yr old girl, then you just can't help yourself.
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The Defeatery
09/06/09

@secretagentman: You're right, it was flippant. If I could edit and delete it I would.
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Foster Kamer
09/06/09

@The Defeatery: My bad. I thought one thing but typed another. Absolutely fine to be flippant about it: not a typo I'm proud of. But it does seem like yesterday, no? It still makes me enormously sad to think about.
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Edited by Foster Kamer at 09/06/09 10:58 PM Foster Kamer was starred Foster Kamer was unstarred

The Defeatery
09/07/09

@Foster Kamer: I didn't quite realize that September 12 is coming up until I read this post. It's almost embarrassing how sad I got about the death of a guy I never knew personally--although, in his case, I feel like his readers knew him through his writing.

Thanks for the post. It's good to know there's a DFW fan at Gawker.
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Edited by The Defeatery at 09/07/09 1:41 AM The Defeatery was starred The Defeatery was unstarred

PaisleyPajamas
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
I am looking forward to this--Krasinski was a writer first and I suspect he has that writer's respect for the written word.
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Flippyjack
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
some of his short fiction would be better suited to film- Brief Interviews seemed the lightest of DFW's fare. "Mister Squishy" would cause riots if well adapted to the screen.
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skahammer promoted this comment Edited by Flippyjack at 09/06/09 3:46 PM Flippyjack was starred Flippyjack was unstarred

skahammer
09/06/09

@Flippyjack: Well, maybe. But does anyone else now wonder if the relentless self-excavation that went into the Oblivion stories was a sign that DFW was already approaching the ultimate, rather quickly?

Whenever I finished one of those stories, I just wanted to wander around my apartment for an hour in the middle of the night, not doing much of anything except thinking. I can't help wondering what it was like to write them, and whether what came next for him was completely unrelated.
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Edited by skahammer at 09/06/09 7:48 PM skahammer was starred skahammer was unstarred

The Defeatery
09/06/09

@skahammer: Agreed. "Good Old Neon" is just eerily prophetic. Meanwhile, I've found that many of the Brief Interviews stories, especially "The Depressed Person," all but induce depression in me when I read them.

Meanwhile, there are all kinds of clues-- scattered throughout Infinite Jest and his other writing, going way back to the stories he wrote in college--that he had intimate knowledge of suicidal ideation. He described that state as accurately as any writer I've encountered, which in retrospect makes his death seem inevitable. Which is just plain shitty.
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Edited by The Defeatery at 09/06/09 8:46 PM The Defeatery was starred The Defeatery was unstarred

snugbug
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here

Spencer Morgan did a killer interview for Mean magazine with Krasinki about "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" back in the summer of '07. We so killed on this but lo and behold, it's not available online. Sadsville.
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noonecaresowen
09/07/09

@snugbug: Did a quick search and found a site that seems to have scanned the pages of the interview:

[www.givememyremote.com]
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snugbug
09/08/09

@noonecaresowen: Ahh, God bless. Thank you for the link.
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Hockeymom
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
I will see this movie, if only to re-live my school girl crush on Timothy Hutton.
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MmeSosostris
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
I'm full of skepticism! I mean, the book was so suited to its form. The absence of the questioner from the text, the footnotes, the quizzes... and what is Dominic Cooper doing here, and a plot?!

With that said I will go to see this as soon as I can just on the off chance that it's a fraction as great as the book.
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skahammer
09/06/09

@MmeSosostris: I think this is just about the perfect attitude to have on this topic.
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MrInBetween
09/06/09

In reply to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men Trailer is Here
Because I LOVE Krasinski's wonderfully heartfelt anecdote, I will root like hell for this film to be so irresistible that it will broaden DFW's audience.
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