2009: The Joneses (31st)

What else happened this year? Outside of world politics, conman Uri Geller bought an island off Scotland which I know by sight, because he thought it had something to do with ley lines or some bullshit. That that charlatan prick has enough spare cash lying around to buy an island is a sad indication of the world.

What is the plot - in one sentence? A new family in a wealthy community, the Joneses, live a perfect life of comfort and label-adherence, which inspires others to do the same.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? They're not a real family, they're just posing like that as they were put together by an advertising company. They work together to sell shite to the neighbours. At the end of it all, they find their humanity, and the two parents head off together into the sunset. 

What's the meaning of the title? Their name is the Joneses, but it's also an illusion to that notion of 'keeping up with the Joneses.' Easy one that.

I scanned through this again to find a picture, and this one of David Duchovny dressed as Steve Jobs, with a giant mug, is from one of the dozens of scenes where these two have too serious conversations.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? What's not aged well is the fashion. This is to be expected from something which is so 'cutting edge' at the time. The 'height of fashion' - and the sponsorships involved, look ridiculous even from only a decade or so on. Also it features Amber Heard, posing as a teenager, getting nailed on a boat by an older gentleman who doesn't like her, which seems prophetic more than anything else.

Any thoughts? So, it's a social commentary about what materialistic lives we lead. It's also pretty well timed coming right after the wall street crash. The story is that Demi Moore (the 'wife' of the family) is the boss of the family, and David Duchovny is newly recruited to the whole business. Their job is to look good, play with the newest toys (clothes, cars, products etc) and 'influence' others to buy the same things. As he's the latest in, he's the one who's questioning why they do it as they do. As well as these two there's a couple of 20-somethings posing as teenagers, the boy of whom is gay, and the girl of whom is a 'nymphomaniac' - it seems that they understood the brief in a way that David Duchovny just didn't.

When a friend of Dave's his kills himself because of his debt, he starts to have some doubts about it all...but what did he expect would happen? Did he just sign up and not think about it? He feels similarly saddened when a girl injures herself drink driving - she's a school age kid and the wine was being peddled by one of the 'kids' of the family - but it isn't his decision to make her drink drive. I don't know why he cared so much.

There's also a hilarious bit where the suicidal guy is plucked from the pool, seemingly dead, and David Duchovny makes it all about himself. He uses this situation to tells all of the townspeople what the Joneses are really up to. Way to go Dave. Doing this costs him the chance of having the dream job that Demi Moore had been talking about all movie, yet she still wants to go off with him. She could do better.

Would you recommend this? What's really annoying is that this movie's largely toothless. There's a lot to say about consumerism and greed, it's annoying that this movie essentially has a 'happy ending' by getting the two together. A better ending would have been them continuing to work a miserable job influencing rich idiots.

So, it's not great, but I didn't hate it. I also thought... why am I watching these? for fun? to get a good look at the time? If that's the case this is more important than good, as it's a great snapshot of 2009. 

Final thoughts? It must cost a lot to buy a proprety, furnish it with fancy products, pay (presumably good) money to the actors / salespeople and then analyse it all. Was that worthwhile at all? Surely a company could earn more money in the end just advertising as usual? It's pretty telling that a company could do far better advertising now merely through targeted ads and monitoring of internet through cookies and the like. So, we can add that to the list of things which haven't aged well.

Right, that's that. More o' this, for movies from other years - right here.