Photos
A clarification: I haven’t read Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I actually really want to. I’ve hated that book for years, but I’ve never actually read it, and I think I owe MYSELF more. Forget Elizabeth Gilbert, I don’t owe her anything, but I’m a precious snowflake, and if I’m going to devote so much energy to hating something, shouldn’t I cherish myself by hating it right? (Although, contrary to the general argument with which I usually agree whole-heartedly that you shouldn’t judge something until you’ve actually read/seen/whatevered it, I’ve read enough books at this point and know enough about this book in particular to be able to make what I feel are some pretty reasonable assumptions about it. Not bragging. Trust me, I wish I had never read Tuesdays with Morrie, but I did, and so here we are, and I’ll pre-judge whatever I want. I paid my dues.) So, if there are ways in which the movie adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir differs from the book, my apologies. The main reason for this clarification is that, as you will see, almost all of my problems with this movie stem from the source material. Yes, admittedly there is an overly heavy-handed use of some kind of “ethereal glow” filter throughout the movie, and there’s also the issue of how, like, really, everyone in India is an English-speaking white American (or Australian)? But mostly my problem is with the character of Elizabeth Gilbert, and the overall thesis of Eat, Pray, Love. So, if in some ways the movie differs wildly from the book on any of these issues (although I’m kind of assuming that the biggest liberty they took was giving Julia Roberts about 300 more teeth than the real Gilbert has) then my apologies. My most sincerest apologies. Oh, I’m so sorry, I’m sure.
Now, about this fucking nightmare.
Eat, Pray, Love is about Elizabeth Gilbert, a late-30-something writer who is unhappily married. Although, the unhappiness in her marriage seems to stem from the fact that she’s just kind of a selfish asshole. Hey, an unhappy marriage is an unhappy marriage, I’m just saying that her husband loves her and they own a house and she’s got a successful career. Like, there are worse reasons to be unhappy is all I’m saying. (Although, actually, it is implied that she is unhappy with him because he hasn’t settled down yet? And wants to maybe go back to school? Which is a pretty fucking ballsy complaint from someone who is about to drop everything and spend all the Semesters at Sea. More on the husband later. I’ve got a real thing to say about that soon!) Anyway, she leaves him and immediately starts dating a 28-year-old actor (James Franco). COOL! COOL ADULT! Somehow, because it turns out dating a 28-year-old actor with a mild interest in Buddhism is not fulfilling to a grown woman, she decides not only to break up with him, but also to spend a year traveling the globe. First she goes to Italy and eats all the pizza (yum!) and buys some new jeans because she’s getting fat (LOLOL!). Then she goes to India and learns how to meditate although at first it’s really hard to meditate and for a long time you are on the edge of your seat like “will Elizabeth Gilbert ever learn how to meditate correctly NO SPOILERS” but then she does learn how to meditate because Richard Jenkins takes her up onto the roof of an ashram and tells her about the time he almost ran over his eight-year-old son but didn’t. Finally, she goes to Bali and rides her bike around and fucks Javier Bardem. SHE’S CURED! SHE CAN LOVE AGAIN! Or can she?! At one point it seems like she might not be able to love again, but no, wait, no, yeah, she can love again. HOORAY! The end.
This movie should be called BARF, BARF, BARF! OK, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can actually talk about it. Let’s start with this scene from early in the movie, which sets up the premise, as well as Elizabeth Gilbert’s motivations, and is basically just the movie’s thesis condensed. I’ve got some real problems with it!
So, you’re going to spend a year traveling the globe because your friend ate a salad for lunch? I would like to point out that although I now the whole “food rant” is mostly just an expression of her feeling that life has become routine and dead-end and passionless that she lives in NEW YORK CITY where some of the BEST FOOD IN THE WHOLE WORLD is available 24 HOURS A DAY. And if there is one specific style of cuisine that this city really has on lock, it is ITALIAN FOOD. Anyway, whatever. Here is my fundamental problem with this scene, which extends throughout the movie: EVERYONE WANTS THE THINGS THAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, YOU STUPID, NARCISSISTIC, SELF-ABSORBED ASSHOLE! Like, this scene actually reminds me of Gwyneth Paltrow’s very first issue of Goop in which she explained that she “likes to be in spaces that are clean and feel nice.” As if that was some special personal choice she had made after years of thinking about it. Elizabeth Gilbert is not special for having decided that she WANTS TO EAT DELICIOUS FOOD and HAVE EXCITING EXPERIENCES rather than WORK.
I’m pretty sure everyone would like that?
Which brings us to that: we should all be so lucky as to spend a year traveling the globe without having to work or have any responsibilities whatsoever. I genuinely mean that! It’s a very privileged position to be in, and anyone who is afforded that privilege should take full advantage of it. But they should also KEEP THEIR FUCKING MOUTHS SHUT. Please, by all means, go on a journey of self-exploration while the rest of us are scrounging together our rent, but don’t act like a goddamned HERO* about it. This movie, which is based on a memoir, uses the words “brave” and “courage” so loosely that those words should be removed from the dictionary because they are now meaningless. I’m sorry, but there is nothing brave about having a ton of money and deciding to be really indulgent about the way that you spend it (and also getting a book deal out of the whole thing by the end). Bravery is, like, Iraq, or whatever. Let me put it this way: BRAVERY DOES NOT HAVE TO BUY NEW JEANS BECAUSE OF HOW BRAVERY WAS SO COURAGEOUS WHEN ALL THE PIZZA WAS AROUND.
Incidentally, during the scene in which she has to buy new jeans because she had the courage to finish all the pizza, she admires a dress and her friend is like “You should buy it, Liz,” and she says “For who?” and her friend says, “Just for you.” Uh, what? I mean, I’m not invested in whether or not she buys the dress, but I’m pretty sure that the ONE THING we know for sure about Elizabeth Gilbert at this point is that SHE HAS NO PROBLEM DOING NICE THINGS EXPRESSLY FOR HERSELF.
Similarly, there is another line, when she is in India learning how to meditate, when she calls her ex-boyfriend and says “I don’t need things to be easy, I just can’t have so hard.” ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING. ME? By a show of hands, who thinks that Elizabeth Gilbert has the hardest life out of all the lives?! (Apparently, it also needs to be pointed out that she says this while she is in India, a country in which abject poverty is unavoidable. Good work, Elizabeth Gilbert. I know it might make your meditation a little harder, but how about you OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES.)
The dramatic stakes, of course, could never be higher than they are in Eat, Pray, Love. Will this well-to-do white woman without any responsibilities open her heart to Javier Bardem in one of the most beautiful places on Earth? I’M ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT! Near the end of the movie, right before she learns to love again, Javier Bardem explains to her that he has to live in Bali for his work but he knows that her life is in New York, and what he is proposing is that since they love each other, why don’t they try and build a life together in which they split their time between the two. Elizabeth Gilbert freaks out and runs away. Now, just to clarify: a man that she is falling in love with asks her to SPLIT HER TIME BETWEEN NEW YORK AND BALI EVERY YEAR. And this is a problem? Once again, against ALL ODDS, Elizabeth Gilbert musters all of her bravery and courage and finally decides that yes, OK, she is willing to split her time between New York and Bali with Javier Bardem. MOVE OVER 9/11 FIREFIGHTERS, THE REAL AMERICAN HERO IS HERE (for half of the year, the other half she is in Bali. It’s pretty sad).
(Her other main achievement besides opening her heart again to love Javier Bardem is that near the end of her journey she asks all of her friends to, in lieu of giving her birthday gifts this year, donate money to help build a little girl a house in Bali, which fair enough, that is very nice, but my only question is: WHAT ADULT WOMAN IS STILL GETTING BIRTHDAY GIFTS FROM FRIENDS? You are not that selfless, Elizabeth Gilbert. You should not be getting birthday gifts in the first place, you are a grown up woman!)
Just a horrible, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, narcissistic, garbage nightmare person. Don’t believe me? Watch her 19-minute TED Conference speech about being a genius and try not to kill yourself.
The worst. And that brings me to what might actually be my most hated part of the entire movie. It’s only two seconds long, blink and you might miss it! Lucky you! I wish I had blinked! Anyway: near the very end, Elizabeth Gilbert is giving a voice over that I think is like a mass email she’s sending to all of her friends but so she’s basically explaining all of the powerful lessons she has learned during her year of adventures and how it has opened her heart to the world or something, and during this monologue, the movie cuts away to a montage of all the people in her life, and we see this:
That is her ex-husband. With his new wife. And their baby. He looks happy! They all do! FUCK YOU NEVERTHELESS, ELIZABETH GILBERT. You see, the point of this shot is to imply that somehow Elizabeth Gilbert is responsible for his happiness. “See, you wouldn’t have been happy with me. Now you have what you wanted. So, if you think about it, it’s actually kind of thanks to me.” It is the classic move of the raging narcissist to actually TAKE CREDIT for this. No, ma’am. Just because your ex-husband was able to put his life back together without you doesn’t mean what you did was nice or cool. You’re still a selfish, self-absorbed, kind of awful person. As proven here once again. (And just to cut off any accusations at the knees, 8 Mile-style: yes, part of my opinion on this matter is formed by the fact that I have dated self-absorbed, narcissistic people in the past who acted horribly. It’s OK! I’m doing great. But just because I am doing great doesn’t make them NOT self-absorbed or narcissistic. That’s not how that works even a little bit.)
Look, I know that I am not the target audience for Eat, Pray, Love, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t find it to be horribly obnoxious and self-serving. Moreover, I actually think I have more respect for the target audience of Eat, Pray, Love than its author does (or than the movie’s director, Glee-creator Ryan Murphy does), because I respect that audience enough not to patronize and lie to it and just tell it that all you have to do is go for it. That’s not true! Sometimes just going for it is not a realistic possibility. Sometimes you kind of have to keep your head down and muddle through. For many of us, when life proves almost unbearably difficult, it’s not just an issue of WANTING TO GO ON VACATION BECAUSE OUR BOYFRIEND IS TOO YOUNG FOR US. And for those of us for whom that IS the decisive decision to be made, again, please, do it, go everywhere, eat everything, but shut the fuck up. Some of us have work to do.
Next week: Splice. As always, please leave your suggestions in the comments or in an email. And if you haven’t done so already, please consult the Official Rules.
The one concession I will make to this whole hero business is that historically, it has been less easy for women to pursue their self-actualization than men. That is obviously true, and I am not overlooking that. But, it is also 2011. At one point in the movie, someone implies that if it was a MAN who was spending the year traveling, everyone would be impressed but because it is a woman, everyone thinks she should just get married. Really? Give me a break. For one thing, that is just not a real double-standard. You know why? Because NO ONE gets to just take a year off to travel the world because they feel like it, regardless of their gender. And also, no. In both cases, man or woman, it is just an enviable and completely selfish thing to do. There is no glass airplane.
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The funniest one WMOAT entry yet! I haven’t actually read anything below the jump, but I’ve read enough WMOATs at this point and know enough about this movie in particular to be able to make what I feel are some pretty reasonable assumptions about it.
I know that I’m assuming that there is only one entry. I’ve paid my dues.
Spoiler alert: I was totally right.
Let me ASL my review of Eat Pray Love for you-
Is it weird that I’ve spent the last minute trying to figure out what episode of the Simpsons is playing in the lower left hand corner?
The one with Grimes?
It looks like him, but I did an image search to confirm. What I discovered only confirmed that Rule 34 is in full effect.
Enhance!
That stands for American as a Second Language, right?
or maybe Age/Sex/Location? (not really)
28/m/your wet dreams (yes really)
fyi – maybe i haven’t been here in a bit, but i do like the return of this avatar!
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see
I think it’s one of the episodes with Homer’s brother, Herb.
Im placing a late vote for the Mel Gibson episode- which might explain the emphatic NO
Oh, and OF COURSE Ryan Murphy directed this.
He also directed Running With Scissors, and Gabe should also do that movie for the hunt because it turned a great book into masturbation jokes, also Gwyneth is in it
Ugh, the only thing worse than the movie might be the book Running with Scissors. I know that might not be a popular opinion, but God, that book was the most ridiculous piece of shock-value shit I’ve ever laid my eyes on.
As I was reading it, I was like, “oh this is interesting” and then I finished it and thought to myself, “wow he just made everything up and tried to pass it off as autobiographical.” This was before James Frey.
I never saw the movie — no interest whatsoever.
Better movie? Better movie.
Two severed thumbs up!
I called moviefone but they didn’t have any information on this.
I know booviefone is for ghost movies, forgot the zombie equivalent
movingbones? Not really, I guess.
FandangBRAAAIIIINS
JULIA ROBERTS ZOMBIE MOVIES!!!
My Best Friend’s BRRRAAAAAAIIINNNNSSSSSS
Erin BRAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIINNNNN-ovich
The Pelican BRRRIIIIEEEEEEFFFFFF
Runaway BBbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrraaaaiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnsssss
Confessions of a Dangerous BRRRRRAAAAAAIIIIIIN
Synaptic Pizza
Mona Lisa BRRRAAAIIIINNNNSSSSSS
Charlie Wilson’s BRAIIIIINS
BRAAAIIINNSSPOTTING.
There is not enough upvotes in the world for this poster.
I have logged in with 3 different identities to upvote this, including Winwood.
I too have decided that I am okay to judge a book harshly without reading it after reading a Mitch Albom book, except mine was The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Back when I worked at a movie theatre a coworker was upset that I was ragging on it without reading it, so I borrowed her copy, read it in one shift, handed it back to her and immediately picked up my hate where I left off. I’ve never looked back.
I judged the DaVinci Code all over the place. Then I actually read it and I was so right. So, the Scientific Method gives me the right to know what’s good and what’s bad. Yay me!
I read the entire Twilight series so I could turn my vague hatred of them into a well-informed, more vicious hatred.
“The Fountainhead”
I had an opinion about this movie once and it still stands true:
“IT’S NOT EASY BEING WHITE….”
You know who else thinks that?
STILL THE WORST MOVIE EVER.
“This movie made me irrationally angry at rich people.” -Rush Limbaugh
Really. Really. Really really.
“LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL (gunshot)” – Gabe Delahaye1000000 B.C – 2011
I think he’s gonna have to rewatch all of the Wire twice over to recover from this one.
Maybe Deadwood too, for good measure.
deadwood *sigh* we just finished the last season of deadwood yesterday. i teared up <—this is not a lie. why did that cancel that showwwwwww
Also found under: White People Problems
I would just like to thank anyone and everyone who made the past two days the weekend of Cool Dog.
What does this mean! I watched it a couple weekends ago with a friend at like 4AM and it was the worst/best/definite worst. Is it a THING now?
This movie is almost as bad as the racist things my mother says on accident during Cash Cab.
High five, schug’s mom!
I think the reason that Wes Anderson is such a great director, besides the obvious trademark aesthetic, is that he, unlike this movie, makes us care about whiny adults who act like children. It’s a difficult thing to do to capture a real phenomena, adults acting like children, but treating it in both a dignified and entertaining way that doesn’t boil down to I HATE MY GOOD PAYING JOB AND LOYAL HUSBAND SO I’M GOING TO RUN AWAY AND DO CLICHE SHIT LIKE SHOP AND EAT AND MEDITATE, BASICALLY SHIT I CAN DO ON THE WEEKENDS BUT I’M GONNA MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF IT BECAUSE I’M RICH AND WHITE AND BECAUSE ME.
tl:dr, I love Wes Anderson.
I think there is a fair chance Wes Anderson could turn this into one of the greatest films ever made.
Best line of this movie: “Look at THESE assholes.” Even out of context, it’s major LOL material.
YES! OMG YES!!
Since it’s right near the middle, middle-end of the movie and there really hadn’t been one of those great Wes Anderson lines yet. It was far enough in the movie that we had gotten to understand the characters and then THAT LINE.
hahahahahahaha, Look at these assholes… it’s even funnier because the line is basically about them being assholes lugging that luggage everywhere. Or when the train’s lost, lol.
tl:dr; I ALSO LOVE WES ANDERSON
Thank you so much for summing up why Wes Anderson’s white people problems are so many leagues ahead of all these other white people problem’s! I think it also helps that his characters are so out there, and his world is so out there, you* don’t really get offended that these rich people are whining, because you don’t directly relate them to the white rich people who make your own life** hell every day. It also has to do with what you said, though, the magic of making us CARE about the feelings of the rich, white, and whiny. He makes us see they have feelings, too! But not obnoxiously! They go to India on journeys of self-discovery and are maybe too white about it, but they’re doing that for themselves, not because someone had a salad, you know? And then a great song plays and the credits roll. I LOVE WES ANDERSON, TOO.
* – “you”. I say “you”, but maybe “you” reading this do really get offended. That’s a right you have. Get offended away. I meant “us”, members of the WE LOVE WES ANDERSON club. Lots of red and blue.
** – my own
See also: Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude
I was gifted Eat, Pray, Love on audiobook and it made me SO FUCKING MAD that I had to shout at it. Her voice, her love of tiny, little, perfect, beautiful things….like it’s some kind of amazing decision-making to think that the Italian language is beautiful, and eating gelato in a twee little spot of sunshine is something you need to celebrate by writing a book about it. Um? No. So, thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this, because she is a horrible, awful, person who shouldn’t be idolized.
But but, it is her purpose on this earth!
My mom bought this book for her ultra-conservative-christian friend who was subsequently VERY offended by it.
And I have to say, I never thought I’d side with the conservative christians over my mom, but “SORRY MOM.”
This review is a perfect time to reiterate that Gabe should, nay, MUST review this “American Classic.”
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee.
I thought we were all on board that the antebellum south was a great and beautiful place.
I LOVE Gone With the Wind. At first I was like, ‘God, what a self-absorbed bitch.’ and then I was all, ‘You GO Diva!’ ooh….it was such a long movie. I’m never watching it again.
I stand firmly behind my nomination.
Colored folks is happy when they is woiking.
Just a REALLY GREAT film that my Grandma loves and, like Grandma, is apparently ‘not racist when you consider the time in which [it] was created’.
Scrolling by really fast I thought this film still of Gone with the Wind was of Alec Baldwin’s face photoshopped onto Vivien Leigh’s body. I now see it’s just Vivian Leigh.
Upvoting was not enough. It totally looks like Alec B.
the book is 4839010218395092 x worse than the movie.
Scarlett (who narrates) wishes death on her children several times.
SEVERAL TIMES. says “I just wish they were dead.” BAM. she also wished death on: her husband, her best friend and her lover.
oh, also, you know how she owned that mill? well in the book, she let the manager of the mill BEAT THE EMPLOYEES TO DEATH. Because they were prisoners so who cares.
and no, you cannot convince me that the slaves “liked slavery” because they are “like children or pets and need to be taken care of.”
Aw. Hell. Naw.
jawnofthedead, as God is my witness I shall nevah give you upvotes again!
(J/K. I will continue to upvote you as I have always done.)
All of these comments about Gone With the Wind and no one has yet explicitly mentioned that a crucial incident in the third act involves Scarlett being attacked by a black man, and then a white mob being assembled to avenge this attempted rape and “clean up Shanty-Town.” And even though it’s not explicitly CALLED the Ku Klux Klan, it TOTALLY OBVIOUSLY IS the Ku Klux Klan, and we’re supposed to be rooting FOR the lynch mob? And we’re supposed to feel BAD when occupying Union troops try to stop the lynch mob and the Klansmen get attacked? Because that shit is SHOCKING AND UNCOMFORTABLE.
Gabe, please write about this movie.
Well, here’s one problem with only returning to Videogum for Gabe’s True Blood recaps: replying to comments WAY too late.
Grrg, it is a white man who attacks Scarlett in Shantytown. It is a black man who saves her so that she can recover from fainting and escape. In fact, she was so distraught she didn’t even notice that it was Polk from Tara who saved her.
Her husband and his friends do form a vigilante group to “clean up Shantytown,” though…but by no means is the area populated only or even heavily with black people.
*It’s actually Big Sam who saves Scarlett, and she does recognize him when he calls out to her.
(My memory’s almost as rusty as Grrg’s
)
At one point, Javier Bardem runs Roberts over with his car. That part is the best..
That was the best scene with Julia Roberts in the history of all Julia Roberts movies… except when her husband was trying to kill her. I was all “Quit fucking around and just push her! Push her like Donna Martin down a staircase! Let’s Gooooooooooooooooooo!” and Julia had to mess that up by going to Iowa. Jerk.
Wait, does Julia Roberts not know how to ride a bike?
“The less I know about other people’s affairs, the happier I am. I’m not interested in caring about people. I once worked with a guy for three years and never learned his name. Best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes.”
- Ron Fucking Swanson (the guy who did not read Eat, Pray, Love)
I will admit that until JUST NOW, I had mixed up Elizabeth Gilbert with Melissa Gilbert, a.k.a. Laura Ingalls. And that was a much more hilarious scenario to believe in.
Just looked up a picture of what Melissa Gilbert looked like. Wow… umm… Three cheers for Prairie living, right guys.
bitch stole my look
Relax, Christina, there’s enough of that look to go around.
You don’t need no effort to get them upvotes here, just bring out Hendricks and BOOM! Ugh, not that kind of boom. What you do in your room is your own business. OH BARFS I’M GROSSING MYSELF OUT BYE.
flkurf rssfm boobs
Whoa, whoops. Sorry, I was about to write a multi-faceted dissection of the film and what it says about the growing emphasis our culture puts on self-actualization and “Me-Time” and how that emphasis sometimes gets conflated with feminist ideals. Then I don’t really know what happened.
Sorry, That One, all I got out of that post was you looked at those pictures and needed “me time.”
Fun Fact: The extended DVD version is called, “Gorge, Get All Sanctimonious, Key Party”.
“Chow Down, Beg, Dry Hump”
The “Bro” Edition: “Get your noms on, see what it do with the Big Guy, bang the shit out of some random chick at a frat party”
“Now you’re speaking my language!”–Dane Cook, cast of Jersey Shore, Entourage fans
“Macrobiotic Diet Book, Kabbalah Bracelet, My Perfect Marriage” – GOOP
(Gwynnie don’t understand parts of speech)
“Creamed Corn, Internet Snark, Birdie tweets.” -Gabe
Dear Gabe,
Please consider Synecdoche, New York for WMOAT. I have previously gone on VG record stating that I actually love this movie. That wasn’t always the case. I actually disliked the movie after first seeing it in the theater. After viewing it several times since, and discussing it at length with people, I’ve come to discover that it is a “hot debate” (NEVER FORGET). For this reason, I think it will be a wonderful addition to the WMOAT queue. Also, it meets all of the official WMOAT qualifications.
Thank you.
Earnestly,
Cakeordeath
P.s.
also love synecdoche, also want to see gabe’s take on it.
HOT DEBATE: NEVER FORGET
That TED conference video is in fact the Worst Movie of All Time. Can we crown it the winner?
I feel like punching her in the eye.
I watched that last year and still experience rage flashbacks.
You’d think that with all that success she can’t stop talking about she’d be able to put together an outfit that is slightly more flattering than kulats and a tunic turtleneck. But maybe I just don’t get it because I haven’t been to Bali.
#fashionpolicegum
#youcrazyforturtlenecks,Bali
It’s odious
I think I may bookmark this and forward it to my friends and extended family when they enthusiastically recommend the book and movie to me. It happens FAR, FAR too often and it gets hard to not sound like a total jerk when you really hate something that is loved by someone you love.
So thanks for this!
Lovely review. My only quibble is I was hoping you would provide a running tally of how many times Julia Roberts unhinged her lower jaw.
Well, how many gerbils did she eat?
OMG, KajusX! Off topic – I listened to that Radio Lab (Lost & Found). The last story KILLED me. Amazing! I almost cried. Thanks for recommending it.
I know, right? I actually broke down at my drawing desk while listening to it. I had to drop my pens and grab hold of my face. I don’t get to feel like that too often. All my emotional defenses had been torn down and my heart was Radiolab’s for the wrenching. That girl’s story was amazing and tragic and touching and hopeful and just, MWAHH. I don’t even know how to express it properly. I’m glad you liked it!
I ESPECIALLY hate this movie because I blame it for much of my marriage falling apart, but I guess I am suppose to THANK Elizabeth Gilbert for that (????). Elizabeth Gilbert really is the worst.
Upvotes of emotional support? Yes.
I feel that you are selfishly withholding details from us, jwormyk…
Billy Crudup?
I guess I do not have the courage (bank account) to be an American hero (who can only find out who I am in foreign countries). I guess I will have to just be a good wife and mother, make the people I love happy by being present, and eat spaghetti in my kitchen. I hope I haven’t let Elizabeth Gilbert down.
Remind me not to buy your memoir.
You don’t have to buy it; I am giving away free copies at the learning annex this weekend!
LOL You are so very awesome. I just cannot express.
“Women be eatin’ and prayin’ and lovin’.” — Standup comedian.
Some cursory research brought up this quote from Elizabeth GIlbert:
“A little something called a book advance, which is not available to every traveler I’m well aware, but it’s my fourth book. So before I went on the journey, I presented it to – I mean, I wouldn’t have been able to go on the journey, especially after a really expensive divorce, so I presented it to the publishers and said, I’d like to write a book about this and, truly, I did want to write a book about it.”
Then I found this quote from me:
Ugh.
Truly.
I have a feeling that this movie is not one of the things about which it would shock me to find out how little you care.
Did anyone here spend 19 minutes watching the Elizabeth Gilbert speech? Just curious if it will be worth a laugh or just make my head spin off.
I barfed.
Just looking at the still of her made me angry. My mom lent this book to me and let me just say I didn’t make it very far, and generally, I finish books unless I’m completely OUTRAGED! UGH UGH UGH She made me almost hate myself for being a white divorced woman. UGH!!! I went through my little self-discovery process in a tiny town in Wisconsin. The same damn place I grew up!
Corrine Bailey Rae lyrics.
I saw that TED thing and, to paraphrase Louis CK, I stopped everything I was doing because I needed my whole body to hate this woman with.
To rip off John Oliver (who was actually talking about Tim Tebow):
“I hate Elizabeth Gilbert so much that if I were in a room with Elizabeth Gilbert and bin Laden, and I had a gun with one bullet, I would shoot bin Laden. I’m not a monster. But if I had two bullets, I would shoot Elizabeth Gilbert first.”
If you switch Elizabeth Gilbert with Gabrielle Giffords that isn’t as funny.
(Yes I know I’m trolling, but geez. Why can’t we just wish bankruptcy on her or something? Why the shooting of the people?)
Easy with the sad trombone, Debbie D
Elizabeth Gilbert should have an existential crisis about her wardrobe. In that TED video she looks like an emo baglady.
The closing lines from Gilbert’s TED Talk posted above:
“Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then “Ole!” And if not, do your dance anyhow. And “Ole!” to you, nonetheless. I believe this and I feel that we must teach it. “Ole!” to you, nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up.”
Just tough it out and keep showing up, is that how we deal with the rough patches?
She’s about as credible as Bristol Palin advocating abstinence.
The omitted words from the subtitles to this talk:
you know? you know? you know? you know? you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?you know? you know? you know? you know?
You know you’re a narcissist If you finish your TED talk and people want to give you a hug.
I’m not sure if Facebook still has a favorite quotes section but if it does “there is no glass airplane” is definitely my new favorite quote on Facebook.
It is one for the ages. It has at least 3 meanings that I can see! (there is no spoon / no glass ceiling here / you’re not wonder woman.) Probably even more, all folded up inside! We might need a whole String Theory for it.
I’d just like to say that when I was living in unheated garrets in Paris, with no hot water, no shower, no toilet, and no phone, I was putting myself though university in my thirties after a few years of living on my hard-earned savings and odd, illegal jobs. My classmates thought I was “courageous,” and “living my dream”. I thought they were idiots. I was just doing what I had to do, and it happened to be in Paris (long story). But when I looked around at the kids whose parents sent them to Europe and paid for their Eurail tickets, or paid for their cushy student lives abroad so they could “see the world,” I felt like spitting on the fools. You want to see the world? Work in it! For thirteen years I never made any money to speak of, but I certainly “found myself!” Yeah! Found myself, brought myself back to NY, and started working, freelance, this time. Wouldn’t have it any other way. Coasting through life indulging yourself will never show you a thing. Figuring out what you’ll do to avoid getting kicked out of a country where you’re residing illegally will make you very self-knowledgable and in tune with the cosmos.
I am depressed.
That whole salad thing is what I hate about metaphors. Drawing a thin line between something that everyone experiences and is sympathetic to (Salads are boring, pizza’s tasty) does not make your stupid outlook on life legitimate. Saying that gay marriage is like a counterfeit 20 is insulting to my intelligence, and telling me that my disdain for salad (actually, guys, salads are pretty damn good. Y’know you can put chicken on salads? And bacon! Those’re the best) is the same as you being a heartless cunt who plans on fucking her way across three continents on someone else’s dime.
Fuck this movie.
I do not have a place in my neighborhood that makes good salads and it’s pretty damn sad, actually. I would KILL for a salad. I just ate a meatball sub and I’m turning into this guy:
LOOK OUT BITCHES
Salads for the win. And for my tummy.
I dislike this book/movie as much as anyone else here, but “fucking my way across three continents on someone else’s dime” sounds pretty appealing to me.
And also, I hate a book title that preaches at me. That seems to be a disease of the overprivileged lately. Preaching. What’s up with that? Does everyone think they’re Oprah or something here?
You know why I thought “Eat, Pray, Love” the movie wasn’t bad? BECAUSE I HAD READ THE BOOK. You can only go up from that pile of dreck.
Are you okay? Do you hate yourself? It gets better!
Ian, I’m an unmarried woman in my mid-thirties. It’s the required reading on our syllabus.
(Also: STEREOTYPE ALERT: I read “Eat, Pray, Love” after someone in my yoga class gave it to me.
However, I saw “Eat, Pray, Love” on a plane traveling to go hang out with a hot 28-year old male. But I only watched it after “The Expendables” because STATHAM. )
I love this comment so much. And only partially because the yoga class Eat Pray Love book handoff thing happened to like 4 people I know.
Omg me too- I got some gushy recommendation from a chick in my yoga class- and wanted to throw up on it the second I started reading it. I actually finished it, for the sole reason of being able to tell people who loved it why they were so so so so wrong on every level and that we could no longer be friends. I agree that the movie wasn’t as god-awful as the book. The book is the biggest pile of self-indulgent turd i’ve ever read. The movie is less bad because it took less time out of my life and Julie Roberts gets laid- which in the book what’s her face says she’s not going to have sex with anyone for a year for no real reason whatsoever even when all of the hot men want her fat ass for some reason.
I love Videogum. Just sayin’. Thanks for making my shitty life less shitty.
Comment of the week.
And I can’t believe I’m going to nitpick this point, but Julia Roberts character didn’t break up with the James Franco character becuase he was too young, but because she realized that she didn’t have an identity outside of her relationships with significant others – she took on all their traits and qualities. Which, looking back on it, was likely a huge improvement over a self-absorbed pasta eater identity.
Also, WHO BREAKS UP WITH JAMES FRANCO????
Jenna Maroney, but only because she can’t compete with Kimiko-chan.
Splice is a good flick. It’s got loads of really black comedy played dead straight. It’s a solid horror with a universal ‘under the skin’ theme, birth and parenting. I was very happy to have seen it.
By no fair measure is it a WMOAT.
There.
Splice was horrible for one reason, bad decisions made for no good reason. Just horrible
Can I just point out that this woman is like a multimillionaire and she has the ugliest fucking website that looks like it’s from 1996? http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm
I have never been less surprised by the presence of Comic Sans.
i have read eat, pray, love. when i was studying in spain, there was this book loan system at my school through which students could take books from a collection as long as they left their own book to replace it. this girl that i knew from back home recommended that i read it. she said it “totally just makes you feel good about doing what is good for you, like as a woman.” i traded in one of the books that i brought (east of eden, probably one of my favorites!) for eat, pray, love. the whole thing took a day to read. i attempted to return it to the book loan and retrieve my copy of east of eden, but alas, my book was no longer there. i then gifted the book to a friend who left it at an apartment in barcelona after reading the first chapter (she is a much slower reader than i and this was the progress she made in a day). when i read something bad i am able to forget about it and move on, my friend, notsomuch. she has yet to forgive me for wasting her time with such an “insipid piece of garbage by a self-absorbed slunt*.” (these are two different classes of friends; the first is the friend you get drunk with at a frat party and steal a bottle of whiskey when the cops are called, the second invites you to an informal get together, cocktail wear required, and if you could please bring a bottle of wine or something.) all in all, the book sucked. i assume the movie did too.
*slut + cunt, my friends and i are not the best feminists as we refer to women who we do not like using such pejorative terms :/
I think you are a fine feminist. My contingent of Lesbian Friends (you can’t get feminister than that) have decreed “slunt” to be the perfect insult, because the two words from which it is derived are each capable, on their own, of being very sexy and approving. But “slunt,” just by the sound of it, can never be a good thing. No one ever with a twinkle in their eye said, “I love her to death — she’s such a huuuge slunt.” No. And no one ever will.
exactly. by itself slut can be endearing when applied to a friend who really does sleep with any dude who shows interest, and cunt is the perfect word to describe that friend who consistently tells you the truths you don’t want to hear about yourself. but slunt is perfect for those women you just can’t stand.
The only problem with slunt – and it’s a small one (ha ha, Freud!) – is that it reminds me of TGI Friday’s “slainte”!
Maybe a promiscuous waitress at TGIFriday’s would be a slainte slunt?
East of Eden is the best, right? Nothing snarky, that is just an awesome book.
hence my hatred of eat, pray, love. i gave up steinbeck (his best in my opinion) for that terrible shit! it really is the best.
My theory on why Elizabeth Gilbert is a genius:
I would really love for someone who is successful to confirm that the mundane, common, and often self-destructive things I do or wish I could do are really acts of bravery and pure inspiration. If I have a hankering to eat an entire pizza by myself in natural lighting, then I would love to hear that it is really the most beautiful step I can take on my path to enlightenment and self-discovery. When I break up with a girl because I am bored with her, I like the thought that I am really just helping her grow and reach her own fulfillment. Unfortunately, I have a modicum of self-awareness (let’s just assume that is true) and realize that the real reason I do these things is because I am a jerk who really likes pizza. However, if I was not cursed in this manner then I could definitely appreciate and possibly buy a book (assuming that I am still the type of person who reads books) written by an already successful writer that is filled with the idea that these acts are the “secret” to a happy life.
“get off the floor Liz!” only thing i remember from this movie before thankfully it put me to sleep
There is so much to dislike about this book/film/philosophy. But I think the thing that shits me the most about this is the ‘pray’ side of it.
It is so completely disingenuous to imagine that a couple of weeks meditating in some way connects you to the depth of understanding, accrued over millenia, and the experience that a faith can offer. Religion is not something that can be simply sampled and be done with. Even if you don’t believe in a god (as I don’t) you can probably appreciate that there is a hell of a lot more to a religion than going through the motions for a couple of weeks. If there wasn’t then they wouldn’t have stuck around for so long.
I lived in India for a year and one of the things that drove me bonkers was the number of whiteys who flew over, spent a week smoking weed in Goa, a week in an Ashram in Kerala/Pune/Dharamsala and then headed back to London/New York to be merchant bankers. It’s the equivalent of saying you read Hamlet because you read Cliff’s Notes.
Fuck Elizabeth Gilbert.
this is my problem with ahrams in general. it seems to me they exist to allow rich people to engage their “spiritual” selves, then after a predetermined period of time (which is odd in itself, because how are you supposed to know before you leave to find enlightenment just how long it takes for you to reach it?) they return to their lives. it’s just ridiculous.
And my WMOAT nominees are:
“Home Fries” (1998): To date, probably THE WORST MOVIE I’ve ever seen. Drew Barrymore’s pregnant with a married dude’s baby, but then the married dude is shocked to death by his sons via helicopter (WHAT), which may or may not be because their mom wanted them to do it, and then Luke Wilson gets a crush on Pregnant Drew Barrymore but OH WAIT that’s his stepdad’s baby she’s carrying, and also they might need to kill Pregnant Drew Barrymore because she MIGHT KNOW about their manslaughter tendencies? In spite of all this, I have a feeling it’s supposed to be a dark-yet-sweet comedy, but I did not laugh. I did not even laugh darkly. Or sweetly. It was the worst. The worst.
The worst.
Anyway, moving on:
“Committed” (2000): Luke Wilson (yep, him again) bails out on Heather Graham after a week (I think?) of marriage, she stalks him for a ridiculous amount of time before realizing he’s kind of (no, definitely) a jerk? And it’s also never really clear why she married him? And she randomly makes out with Casey Affleck, who’s playing her brother? Or maybe not I don’t really remember? And there’s a random dude stroking a mannequin? What?
“The Invention of Lying” (2009): Ugh. Ricky Gervais. I like him as much as the next person, except not really, because he seems to think he’s much funnier than he is, and the shorter his jokes are, the better, because going by this movie, he should not make movies. Plus the usually pretty likable Jennifer Garner is a narcissistic mess. Also, again: Ugh. Gervais.
“The Ice Storm” (1997): I may be biased by the fact that I saw this movie on a day that turned out to be one of the worst of my life, but seriously, it’s bad. Not only super depressing and unpleasant to watch, but just also kind of not good.
The Ice Storm is really not good. I watched it in the throes of my “I like deep movies with very almost no plotline because I am intelligent and thoughtful” phase (age 16-19), and I liked a lot of boring movies that purported to be deep but were just ridiculous, and this one was still really bad.
Thankfully I have not seen any of the others you mention.
Sigh. I wanted to like the Ice Storm. It’s dark! Cusack! Reitman! But yeah, it really was a POS movie.
Yeah, but KEY PARTY!!!!!!
btw, along that same line (movies that try to blatantly pander to people that like to feel like they “get it” and yet are so infuriatingly emotionally-bankrupt and poorly done that they are borderline insulting to intelligent people everywhere), why hasn’t Gabe done Vanilla Sky yet? Nothing brings me more movie-related fury than that piece of shit. And yet so many future investment bankers I went to high school with adored it, and bragged about how they were able to follow the plot. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. SO AWFUL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddlaPmZFzQ
YES. Please… please do Vanilla Sky. That movie is poop, and it was Cameron Crowe’s follow up to Almost Famous, which was actually a great film! WEIRD CHOICE BRA.
You gotta love a movie that uses up most of its post-climax falling action to explain why its big ending twist is so clever. I would also say add Shutter Island to the WMOAT pile for that very same reason. Ben Kingsly actually uses a CHART to explain to the audience why it was all a crazy twist ending! A CHART!!! I’m a big Scorcese fan but that I’m sorry, that is just inappropriate.
And the infuriating thing about the clearly explained twist ending in Vanilla Sky was that is NOT clever. It was a stupid twist that didn’t really make sense – they may as well have gone the aliens route and nuked the fridge, etc. etc. I got it (thanks, doctor explainer guys!), and it was still stupid.
With Shutter Island, the “twist” seemed fairly obvious, and the chart to explain what was not that surprising was hilarious, but at least I liked the characters and the whole scary crazy prison island vibe, so it’s nowhere near Vanilla Sky/WMOAT territory for me. I hated every single thing about Vanilla Sky – even the semi-neat Times Square scene was ruined for me because all I could think about was the corralled zombie tourists a half block away waiting to break the police line and take pictures of the Cup O Noodle. And I hated all the hype around it even more. SO AWFUL.
The worst thing about Vanilla Sky is that it is not only terrible, but it is also a blatantly lazy rip-off.. Shot for shot, it really is the same movie. Amusingly, the one detail that changed in the American version is Penelope Cruz is a dancer instead of a mime.
“These colours don’t run! And no mimes!”
-American Vanilla Sky focus groups
PS: Remember Cruise on Cruz??? Bizarre!
Well, also, I know her target audience. I know quite a few unfortunate members of her target audience. And even THEY did not enjoy this movie. That is how objectively awful it is.
I will not be silenced!
Don’t bad mouth my people robot!
Listen, I don’t remember ANYTHING about that movie beyond how handsome Hugh Jackman was. …and wasn’t that all that movie was about? Watching Hugh in tight pants?
I tried to watch this on an airplane once. I couldn’t get part the first 2 minutes.
My eyes and soul were barfing.
I haven’t read
Eat, Pray LoveMein Kampf byElizabeth GilbertAdolf Hitler. I actuallyreally wantdon’t need to. I’ve hated that book for years, but I’ve never actually read it, and I think I oweMYSELF moreno one to do so. [Mind you, I'm not comparing a dull narcissist with Hitler, but I think there are some things we can accept as inevitably terrible on faith. Life = too short. Again, I know Elizabeth Gilbert is not Hitler by a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong shot. But she sucks and one doesn't have to exhaust every avenue of investigation to conclude that. Rewatch LOST or something! Volunteer at an animal shelter! Learn Mandarin! FUN FACT: Mein Kampf does not seem to be available on Google Books.]Very cool. Very comment. -Videogum
The best thing about the horror story that is Elizabeth Gilbert: her ex-husband Michael Cooper also got a book deal to write about his year of coping with divorce by doing the exact opposite thing, dedicating himself doubly to humanitarianism and human rights (he already did work in this area). However, the book was canceled when he refused his publisher’s demand to make the book “racier.”
Please, 2012, come faster. Please.
You’re describing a satirical piece in The Onion. right? That’s not, like, what actually happened in real life, right?? RIGHT???
I don’t think Elizabeth Gilbert will ever find happiness unless she thrill kills a hobo.
Did you watch that TED talk? She admitted that her career was frivolous and her success was surprising to even her, and that a lot of artists are self-involved and narcissistic. This seems self-aware but I don’t think it is self-aware in the way it should be.
ALSO: She said she has 40 more years of work left in her! Ay chihuahua!
Saw _Blue Valentine_ last night — or, as I like to call it, _Blue Valentine: Two Actors Acting_. I want to nominate it for WMOAT. I swear I’m not just backlashin cuz it’s “critically acclaimed.” I mean, it was very film-y and truth-y and I may have misted up a few times, and don’t get me wrong, Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling definitely can Act, and in a lot of ways I appreciated it. But I just still kind of hated it. Like, this is what these people wear to get married even though they are supposed to be PWT and not hipsters. It was weird, it was like, the director was like, we’ll make them wear ugly clothes that are so ugly that they’re hip, but actually so hip that they’re unhip, and that will be like, realistic? UGH. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://seriousmovielover.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/blue-valentine-wedding.jpg&imgrefurl=http://seriousmovielover.com/2011/01/20/crushing-love/&usg=__GO0hDQWTVvKcwmUko31FM5brcgA=&h=334&w=600&sz=45&hl=en&start=0&sig2=SxjHRys6XUJly5JdB7XVRg&zoom=1&tbnid=f9GjLZpbSXIO1M:&tbnh=151&tbnw=201&ei=9I1HTaruGYep8AaJvrivBg&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Ryan%2Bgosling%2522%2Band%2B%2522eagle%2Bsweatshirt%2522%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1004%26bih%3D588%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=123&vpy=99&dur=76&hovh=167&hovw=301&tx=184&ty=123&oei=7I1HTaHgNYG78gax5M26Bg&esq=3&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0
Sorry, that was hideous. Don’t laugh at me. Here we go:
I would just like to note that if heroism and courage was defined by one’s ability to eat pizza and pasta, then I am the only true American I know, and tales of my courage will fill the halls of Lou Malnati’s for generations.
Dear Gabe, I am terrified that you will hate me for comparing you, but here goes:
Throughout the book, Gilbert has a sense of humor about herself and constantly contextualizes her choices. She regularly acknowledges how outrageously lucky she is, how her problems are nothing compared to the daily struggles of most citizens of India, etc, etc. She is rigorous on this front throughout the book. Obviously the movie doesn’t touch this. Plus, every single actor cries. And by halftime she’s crying in every scene. It’s just weird.
Similarly, I love your comedy 100 times more than most because you never go for the easy generalization. You regularly acknowledge the complexity of the things you’re commenting on, like in your footnote to this WMOAT. I love V’gum because you let it rip but you’re not lazy. You’re thorough, you’re compassionate, and you’re specific. It’s a lot of work, but it makes you funnier. And better.
What I’m saying is, Gilbert is the Goopster Gabe. I’m sorry. But I had to. Please don’t hate me. I like you. I’ll go now.
I embarrassed!
ruby7 I wholeheartedly agree. This is the only point on videogum where I really disagree with Gabe and I think he lacks some perspective. The movie does suck, but the book is pretty good. Maybe I only relate to it because I come from an upper middle class white family and have been through a divorce. Sorry, I guess that makes me a horrible person? Gotta go now, late for yoga class.
Whoa, back up a sec: your friends stop giving you presents when you get older? Shit
Also, why is she dressed like Steve Jobs @ TED?
I see that video on TED all the time. I had no idea that was the woman who wrote Eat Pray Love. I just see it and think, “She chose to wear a black turtleneck to speak to the brightest, most creative people in the world about a NEW way to think about creativity? There is something wrong with her brain. If she had gone the whole 9 yards and worn a black beret with a black soul patch, I might consider listening to what she has to say.”
I would like to nominate It’s Kind of a Funny Story
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804497/
I don’t even have to make the somewhat weak point that the movie is pretty, oh so pretty, to look at.
Sex and the City 2 was reprehensible. The absolute worst, most offensive dreck ever. Eat Pray Love doesn’t hold a candle to it’s awfulness.
I read the book years ago because my (otherwise sane) new manager really liked it and recommended it when we were discussing books, and I wanted to make a good impression. It’s as loathsome as the movie sounds, and I was grasping at straws when she wanted to discuss it (‘you know, that food she eats sounds DELICIOUS’). I can’t imagine ever sitting through the movie, but you know, this ragey recap makes me happy.
I knew the movie was bad, but the point that lost me completely was when they collapsed into fits of giggles in the dressing room when their jeans didn’t fit. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE. Women do not find it hilarious they are getting fat. They sit in the dressing room and CRY about this. BITCHES.
I love this review and I love videogum. There was once a (different) blog I really loved and read for years and years and finally got up the nerve to comment (yeah, I know how sad that sounds, shut up), and a few people were like ‘screw you, NEW PERSON’, so that sucked and I never commented again. And now I have been reading Videogum for quite awhile and my very first comment was a suggestion that Gabe review EAT PRAY LOVE, and he fucking reviewed it (GREAT REVIEW! HORRIBLE MOVIE!) and no one was awful. So this has been a totally corrective emotional experience.
Your avatar has a puppy in it, the Videogum community had no choice but to welcome you. A few trying downvoting, but the puppy was staring at them, and they just couldn’t. They couldn’t!
I took off and traveled for a year. I usually ate one meal a day, stayed in fleabag motels and on the couches of friends……I did fall in love, but with a narcissist, and I never did learn how to meditate.
I loved this post. I hate EPL and the people who love it.
In my mind the bitchiest thing she did was mock James Franco for his faith, then pursue his religion in India! At one point she calls him up from the ashram and lies to him saying she hasn’t seen his guru when she’s been meditating with his guru. That’s like ripping on someone’s musical taste but then following his favorite band around.
The contest is over. Great review and it barely scratched the surface, no need really to go into the murky depths of terrible this movie presents. But the worst thing that happened in this movie actually happened with Eat, then Pray, then Love. When she arrived in a foreign country, knowing no one, she was immediately aggressively pursued by another person who for no reason whatsoever went far beyond what normal humans do for other humans who don’t need help. No, a pretty lady in a crowded cafe in Italy doesn’t see you and think ‘I’m going to help this lady buy coffee and then buy jeans, and then introduce her to every amazing person I know in this country’. An old man in an ashram doesn’t stalk you with the goal of helping you get over how awful you are when he knows nothing about you. A hot man doesn’t want to spend his life, which he cuts in half to fit in your NY life, with you after running you over and spending some nights with your emotionally absent and eventually tantrum-prone ass. Fuck you, Gilbert. This of course is an assumption, I am not a rich white lady and it wouldn’t surprise me if the world works for them like this. If that’s the case, fuck you world.
I never comment but I must sit back and applaud this takedown. Top notch stuff.
Ugh, I hate priv lit. It assumes that the only way to obtain enlightenment is to abandon all of your responsibilities and pursue the self-absorbed quest to “find yourself”. It’s nauseating and ya know what? I like my kids. They are awesome little people who are a heck of a lot more fun than hanging with a bunch of rich, spiritually bankrupt white bitches in an ashram.
And that TED video? Ugh! Can we all please make Elizabeth Gilbert go away?
Ok, I realize I’m almost 200 posts in, but I just had a moment and had to put in a pre-emptive WMOAT bid for Peep World. This movie is not yet on Netflix, but, hit save, it’ll be there eventually. I saw it at the Philadelphia Film Festival and it is 90+ minutes of people screaming at each other about how hard it is to come from money and have a big family who all live nearby. This movie is both about White People Problems to the exclusion of all else *and* it is a white person’s problem, because I am white and this movie makes me feel like no one on earth can feel my pain.
You want name actors? Boy howdy. Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, Ron Rifkin, Rainn Wilson, Judy mother-loving Greer!, that nice girl who played the daughter in Brokeback Mountain. TV actors, for the most part, but definitely name ones.
It has a scene where a character tries to give a speech while experiencing priapism. It’s terrible, and I thought it would disappear from the world’s memory, Men In Black-style, but I just saw it on the front page of IMDB and it must be stopped. Or at least heartily mocked.
It seems that she is doing meditation. Isn’t she..?
Max Cleanse Pro
This is what my mom said when I steered her toward this page, before she even read any of what Gabe had to say: “I haven’t seen the movie, I struggled through reading the book one summer (wasted half the summer forcing myself since it was for our book club). I felt like she took a year off of work and paid for it by writing a book. Very selfish in my opinion.”
When Gabe and my mom agree, I think we all have to agree that something is seriously wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHU4r1iig_M
thank you soooo soooooooo much for this in-depth coverage of what is truly the most awful book/movie “phenomenon” of all time!! many family members of mine raved about it, including my sister who spent a semester abroad in Cuba and has a Masters degree in Regional Planning… but I couldn’t even stomach finishing the book!
I would like to nominate the 2011 Bradley Cooper/ Robert Deniro film “LIMITLESS”. It is currently available on Netflix. I know this because I watched it last night, all of it, alone, on my couch, even though I could tell within the first three minutes it would be terrible, because the CREDITS were annoying, THAT’S how terrible. It’s about how Bradley Cooper wears an army jacket and has long hair but then becomes LIMITLESS after taking a drug which unlocks the LIMITLESS potential of his brain and then he gets a haircut and becomes handsome and meets Deniro and the movie turns into Boiler Room or something.
This is a big bag of bitterness. I can’t afford to travel for a year to find myself either. But you damn well better know I WOULD if I could.
Jealous much?