by Jon Partridge
With a look at the poster for Get a Job, you’re going to be intrigued. You’ll find Miles Teller, still riding the success of Whiplash, despite appearances in the woeful Fantastic 4 and Divergent series of films, and Anna Kendrick, who is great in everything and should be in all things. In support there is a veritable cornucopia of talented, entertaining actors: Brandon T. Jackson (Tropic Thunder), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad), Alison Brie (Community), Jay Pharoah (SNL), Marcia Gay Harden (The Mist, Grandma), John C. McGinley (Scrubs, The Rock), John Cho (Star Trek, Harold & Kumar), Jorge Garcia (Lost) and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad yo).
Lovebirds Will (Teller) and Jillian (Kendrick) find themselves in different circumstances after graduation. While Jillian seems to have her career all set, Will sees a promised internship at a tech startup slip from his grasp. Seeking a little financial help, he discovers his father Roger (Cranston) has also been made redundant from the company he has worked at all his life. While Will eventually finds himself a low level job working for a oppressive corporate firm, his father finds reentering the job market to be more of a struggle.
Get a Job actually looks to tackle a very real and pressing topic, that of a shifting job market. We no longer have careers for life, competition for jobs is increasingly fierce, and many positions are becoming superfluous. It comes at this in two ways, looking at how both Will, a Millennial, is having difficulty starting his career and how his father, a baby boomer, is also struggling despite his wealth of experience. These are timely themes for a film to explore; it’s HOW Get a Job does it that undermines its efforts.
The current state of employment in this country is a topic ripe for both comedy and serious reflection, but Get a Job is unsure which of these it wants to be and the end result is a weirdly toned mishmatch. It paints the workplace and most employers in a starkly negative light — Marcia Gay Harden’s character is seemingly lifted right out of a Pantomime — while those looking for work are portrayed as entitled fuckups. It’s oddly negative. This is met with a comedic tone that at best can be described as crude with sexist overtures. On top of this there is an awful and intrusive score. There are a few laughs, Will’s roommate Charlie’s attempts to teach basketball lessons for instance, but for that one scene, there are multiple moments involving advice from a stripper, semen guzzling, or a coarsely inserted pimp (Jay Pharoah).
The film is snappily shot by Dylan Kidd, channeling the energy of the cast, but it’s still insufficient to elevate the sloppy, confused screenplay from Kyle Pennekamp and Scott Turpel. It switches erratically between sympathy for and mockery of the characters and just doesn’t feel sincere as a result. Little moments entertain, reminding you of the quality of individuals even though the whole fails to coalesce into anything. An over-sexed Allison Brie tries her best; a simple moment of Will buying his father tacos with his first paycheck is nicely done; and the aforementioned basketball scene, which actually comes close to delivering a real message about entitlement, is perhaps the standout. These aside, it just doesn’t come together, it’s as if multiple stories were written as some kind of anthology film and them mashed together, poorly. The message it sends is muddled and the comedy just settles into something loutish and vulgar.
Curiously, the film was made back in 2012, before the ascent of several of the cast to a more prominent Hollywood status. Riding their wave of success, Get a Job has been taken off the shelf and put out on VOD and home video. Such a generic film cannot suppress the charms of Kendrick and Cranston, who despite the material, turn in performances you’d hope for. Teller is fine, but his character has a tendency to grate. The rest of the cast are remarkably uninspired. The fact it’s being released now, when many involved are even more famous, only compounds the confusion at watching such a waste of talent.
THE PACKAGEThe video quality of Get a Job is fine. Detail is a little spotty in parts, and the color grading seems a little heavy handed at times, but these are things noticed with an overly critical eye. Special features include Video Resume Outtakes where a number of the cast, in character, film their own video resumes. Where It All Began is a “short making of” with some behind the scenes footage and interviews. There is also a code for a digital download of the movie.
THE BOTTOM LINEGet a Job at times veers close to social commentary on the job market or the contrast between Millennials and Baby Boomers, but always takes a sharp turn toward the vulgar. Kendrick, Brie, and Cranston emerge with some credit despite the material handed them, but there is little else here to recommend. It’s a film that tries to be resonant but can’t resist the cheap joke, proof you can’t have it both ways.
Get a Job is available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital HD on June 14th from Lionsgate.