The Leisure Class

Moviecut—The Leisure Class

source: The Leisure Class

Wow, good thing he fought so hard for film, what a pompous ass! Now someone has to store this piece of crap! He was difficult from the 1st minute, I wish someone would have just fired him and show how harsh Hollywood can be. The worst part is I bet he is blaming everyone else for this failure, I was shocked he won to begin with. During the selection process, I, as a PGL fan, liked almost every other contestant more. I felt they were more appreciative and down to earth. This guy was difficult even during the interview. He acted like he didn't even want the opportunity, WHAT AN UNGRATEFUL and BAD DIRECTOR!!

The Leisure Class is what you get if Wedding Crashers had a child with Mr. Bean, and it didn't have a funny bone in it's body. The film tries too hard to be a British Rom-Com similar to 4 Weddings and a Funeral; and fails. Don't try this at home, kids! The story is unfocused, poorly structured, and reeks of desperation. Desperate to be funny. The film switches from comedy to drama, and that kills what little momentum it had. The dialogue is stilted. Much of the dialogue and action is driven by dues ex machine. Things happen, or are said, in the movie for no reason other than someone said: "wouldn't if be funny if?" It never works. I just don't get why Project Greenlight decided this was the film to go with. I have to assume that sexual orientation (of the writers, one was the director) came into play. I watched the film after seeing the latest episode of PG. It's the episode where the HBO guy tries to tell the Director his film isn't getting through to the audience. The Director pouts like a little bitch. This after a screening, that amazingly, said the audience didn't get it. The Director still did not see the light. He was upset that he couldn't make the film "without interference." His artistry was assailed. Anyway, after that little temper-tantrum, I had to see it. BTW, the HBO guy was correct in adding the explanation by the female lead as she comes down the stairs.

No matter what others might say, I found this to be a very good film as it deals with relationships and how the truth ultimately comes out, in order to save the day. It is also a story of revelation and ultimate redemption. The film also sports an outstanding performance by Bruce Davison, as the senator who tries to live life among the elite, but when things start to come out, he reveals himself at the end as quite a character to boot. It is by far his best performance since him nominated performance in "Longtime Companion." The picture starts off quite comical with an off-the-wall brother suddenly appearing at his brother's engagement party. The latter is marrying into society and into a political family as well. He has hidden his true identity and has totally reinvented himself. The appearance of the brother begins to erode all that and with drunken evening pool parties, a near car crash and the ultimate revelations of the Davison (Sen.Ed) character, you know that the engagement shall not exactly bring forth marriage. The role of the women as rebellious, snobbish, intellectual and power-seeking are well revealed here.

I just finished watching HBO's latest season of Project Greenlight and it's resulting movie, The Leisure Class. Because of editing, and well you know TV, I'm not sure whether the director or the producer was the bigger problem with this endeavor. The show was entertaining, the movie was not. While the acting was solid, with decent performances all around, this dark comedy was not funny. The story was not interesting or new but you could see the actors trying to work with what was essentially a stale script. It looked like exactly what it is, a low budget film from a first time director who thinks way to highly of himself. I'd watch the show and skip the movie. Yet another big "Meh" a for Project Greenlight film and this falls completely on the director and producer.

Happy to contribute a review for The Leisure Class! Simply put, most American comedies just aren't funny anymore. Long gone are the nuanced, intelligent and witty Woody Allenesque films but thank God for up and coming writers like ----- Amy Schumer. Wouldn't call what she's writing classy humour, lol, but smart nevertheless. And the writers of this film have contributed something most viewers probably just don't understand & sadly that's usually the case when screenwriters contribute something actually worthwhile. I have an appreciation for The Leisure Class because of the layers of thought beneath the surface. For example, after deceitfully pursuing wealth and prestige and social status, Ed Weeks' character realizes (after the wedding) his ne'er-do-well brother is probably happier with his "affordable" prostitute than he'll be in this newly inherited (and miserable) family. It's brilliant and the actors did such a great job telling the story. The look on Charles' face at the film's end says it alllll! Just wanted to spread some love to the cast and crew and HBO. Congrats to all involved. xx

Personally, I think they should air the movie BEFORE Project Greenlight airs. It's difficult to say how much of a heavily edited TV show taints one's views on the final product. It's like shopping for a new car and discovering food stains on the upholstery before you make your purchase. That being said, I feel I was pretty objective. I thought the movie was visually striking, the performances were sound (Bruce Davison's performance was sheer brilliance and Emmy worthy), the score underwhelming and the writing flawed but with solidly compelling moments. I give the benefit of the doubt that this is due to the time constraints on the production and the inexperience of the director. The problems with the writing had less to do with character, more to do with the plot, pressing situations with characters reacting unrealistically in order to move to the next scene. For instance, while I found Tom Bell's character Leonard realistic at its core, his reactions and behaviour felt falsely nihilistic rather than truly characteristic. Returning to the house with a hooker claiming to Ed he knew how to make it right... these types of situations just felt laboured and contrived. Metaphorically, rather than figuring out how a male cat would react to having another tomcat encroach on it's territory, they just threw two cats in a bag and threw it into the audience hoping we'd find it funny. That being said, the fixes to Fiona's character worked for me. She had depth of character, despite having shallow values. I felt all the actors gave solid performances and as I mentioned earlier, Bruce Davison excelled. The strongest scene in the film for me was when Edward confronts the brothers, then turns on the family. Despite the discomfort it was an extremely powerful scene. Overall, I thought it was a decent flick that didn't know whether to be more farce or cerebral. I only laughed out loud once, when Edward wakes up with phalli marked on his face by Leonard. That being said, I wish they'd gone the cerebral route rather than beating us on the soles of our feat with forced gags. While watching Project Greenlight, I felt that director Jason Mann was overly picky, despite everyone's claim to his being a genius and respecting his vision, which is fair enough. It's great that he has an aesthetic vision, the film was beautiful to look at and I did notice continuity problems with the lighting with which he expressed concern. But you know what? If that information hadn't been telegraphed during the episodes, I probably wouldn't have noticed. They didn't really fix the car crash, there was a noticeable jump in the cut during one of the shots. They should have spent more time on the writing, less than arguing about locations and film vs. digital. My take? He needs to learn how to properly prioritize. Hopefully, that will come with time.

I remember watching the first Project Greenlight and marveling at the difficulty of film making. I believe the actor was a very young Shia LaBeouf in what I believe was his first major role in a full length feature. After watching that first film I felt It was a great script that due to budget limitations was not that great of a movie but it had potential. The Leisure Class was built up to be a far better FILM! (what a waste) in part because of all who where involved saying every week to the viewing audience how great Jason Mann was as a director. Well not only was he not great at directing his writing left something to be desired. I realize budget was a big issue but what he managed to put on FILM! (what a waste) did nothing to convince anyone he had the skills to become a "great film maker". Look I get it...It's hard to make a good movie but Jason just made sacrifices to story telling so that he could get his way and that lead to the making of a very average at best FILM! (what a wast). Better luck next year Matt and Ben.

Considering the circumstances behind it I thought it was well done. Great chemistry between the two leads. I was drawn into the concept of the film and even looked beyond it. Philosophically speaking you might interpret Leonard as the crazy extension of William's personality. (and lets be honest Leonard did exhibit signs of the actor from Drop Dead Fred) It seemed to me, the tighter the noose was getting in the real world considering Fiona and her father, "POSSIBLE SPOILER" the more Leonard's psycho personality would come disrupt the household eventually forcing all cards to be laid on the table. Jason, the director may be destined more for the indie film path, as opposed to Hollywood but there's no shame in that. After watching the series leading up to the movie I was more than shocked to find out they'd actually put a coherent story together, achieved nice visuals, and pulled off some pretty good acting. The movie has a beginning, a middle an end. There were lessons learned for the characters and while the story wasn't perfect I have to say honestly I have seen a lot, a lot worse. So I don't understand all the bad comments I've seen. Maybe there wasn't enough raunchy jokes for the college crowd? Maybe not enough special effects for the Hollywood kids? Maybe the story wasn't as deep, funny, intense (or whatever adjective you wanna throw at it) But, for all things considered I felt it was well done.