Welcome back!
First of all, I want to know your thoughts on Miles Teller's ("Miller"'s) channeling of Vince Vaughn. Please leave comments below. I have found in recent years that Vince Vaughn doesn't do Vince Vaughn in his prime this well any longer. I thought he was great. I really enjoyed the performance.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, much of the movie has not taken the reel less traveled so to speak. We saw an irresponsible guy who is not the best influence talk his friends into doing something they really shouldn't be doing. We Saw that Jeff Chang has an overbearing father. We saw that one of the friends has an "appointment" that he just can't miss. We saw so much drinking that even Lindsay Lohan would have stood up and yelled "damn!".
We have been there and done that so much that many of you may have passed up this movie and you would have missed a more interesting addition to this type of film.
Jeff Chang isn't stable. He's hurting. He's isolated since his friends went off to their respective colleges. This is realized over perfectly timed reveals. First, they find a pistol in his pocket. This is no longer the Jeff Chang they know. Next we find out that he was arrested. Definitely not the Jeff Chang they know! Later we find out that Jeff Chang had attempted suicide. Well, he did and he didn't. He was released into his own care from the college health facility because they found stress to be the main cause of his anguish. At this point if something remotely close to this happened in "Project X" or another film of this ilk, the Jeff Chang of that film would promptly have been laughed at and had his "balls busted" or they would have gotten him drunk. Not the case here. His friends show immediate concern and want to help him, plus at this point he's already too drunk. They don't claim to want the old Jeff Chang back, they just want their current Jeff Chang well again. This is best illustrated when Jeff Chang's father calls him "worthless" and Miller punches him square in the jaw and told his pals how good it felt. I know one thing, it felt good to watch.
The subplot of what Jeff Chang has been going through comes around full circle and we come to the realization that his father's motivation didn't seem to come from a place of "culture" or "concern" but rather a place of control. Controlling his son and bending him against his will to his own likeness.
Once again, I have a bias towards two types of films and cannot be held responsible for what I say: 1) college movies like this and 2) superhero movies. That said, I think this is a pretty good choice for a rental if you have the same weaknesses that I have.
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