Here’s a film I bought about a year ago based on the recommendation I received from my (aspiring-writer) waiter I had one night. He explained it is a must see for anyone looking to work in the “biz” - and after seeing this, I have to agree with him.
The film’s about this new-to-Hollywood film school grad named Guy who’s just landed the prestigious job as Buddy Ackerman’s new assistant. Buddy, one of the most powerful producers out there, is quite simply the biggest jack-ass there is. Right from the first scene where the two meet, Guy accidentally grabs the wrong type of sugar (Equal instead of Sweet and Low) for Buddy's coffe. Buddy just looses it and chews him out intensely over what most would consider nothing. As time passes, we see Guy grow in experience, build confidence, and develop a thicker skin to Buddy’s constant barrage of vindictive tantrums. However, no matter how tuff you get, we all have our breaking points.
Looking from the cover, it’s easy to imagine this as a little-hearted comedy - something comparable to The Devil Wears Prada - but, oh, how wrong you would be. This film is dark. In one of the opening scenes we see cops surrounding Buddy’s mansion wheeling out a corpse in a body bag. Guy’s over in the corner sucking down on a cigarette and answering some cop’s questions. From then on the films flops back-and-forth between two different story lines. One being Guy’s struggle to keep his job as Buddy’s assistant. The other explains how Guy got to this grim predicament... and who's in the body bag.
Now I won’t ruin the ending for you, but I have to say the movie did surprise me. It strives hard to deliver the message of how evil and greedy you need to be to make it as an exec in show business. That it is just a dog-eat-dog world. Hopefully, this theme is purely for entertainment purposes only, or at least I can manage to keep my distance from any boss who ever upholds these beliefs.
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