In keeping with today’s odd confessional spirit, I’d like to openly admit that I hate really drunk people in movies. I’ll eventually see Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist because I kind of have to, but the one thing holding me back is that really drunk girl (Kat Dennings’ best friend in the movie, played by 25-year-old stage vet Ali Graynor) in the trailer. You know her. You’ve seen the commercial 10,000 times. She finds Jesus and he’s much taller than she expected. People seem to find this line hysterical; I find it completely annoying. Maybe I’m just jealous because the closest thing to Jesus I’ve found late-night in New York is pizza. Anyway, Lisa Schwarzbaum raves about Graynor’s performance in her A- review of Nick and Norah’s, and my office buddies who’ve seen the film say the drunk girl’s the best part of it. I’m hopeful that Graynor can convert me, but I’m still not swayed.
What about you? Drunk people in movies: Intoxicating or hilarious? Why can’t everybody just get stoned?
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Because drugs are bad, mmmm-kay?
Wow, Annie B. admitting to having plumbing problems, AND tacitly admitting a preference for light drug use, all in the same day? Is it a full moon or something?
Drunk people are only very mildly amusing (read: just barely on the cusp of annoying) when the viewer of said drunk people are drunk themselves.
Drunk people in movies has been getting old (due to the same old schtick), except for in the 40 Year Old Virgin… that drunk driving scene with Leslie Mann and Steve Carell was HILARIOUS!
Dudley Moore in Arthur, hilarious. Can’t Hardly Wait, hilarious, 16 Candles, hilarious!
No, I’m totally with you. The drunk Nick & Norah girl bugs the hell out of me and makes me not want to see it. (I’m also not a huge fan of those “crazy night where one thing after another goes wrong” movies, so that’s a factor too)
I think most “drunk” performances in movies are terrible, unrelated to actual drunkenness and thoroughly unfunny. That said, Dudley Moore was great in Arthur. He is the exception to the rule I guess.
Best Drunk performance… Oliver Platt in The Ice Harvest. He starts out at hammered, and gets progressively worse as the night goes on. HILARIOUS!!!
I usually don’t like drunk characters- there are very few exceptions. I just find the characters annoying!
It really depends–I’ve always said that drunk scenes are the ultimate test of acting ability. If you’re not good, the drunk scene will out you as such. You will crash and burn. If you are a good actor, however, you will make it through the drunk scene with flying colors.
Probably what’s thrown you on cinema drunks in general, Annie, is that most people unfortunately aren’t good enough to pull them off.
I vote for Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. Perpetual drunks are bores at best, but characters who get drunk now and then can reveal a bit about themselves.
I usually find drunkenness pretty bad in movies. sometimes it’s alright. I actually find people who are stoned to be worse though. I think it’s stupider and less funny.
Well, Annie B., I feel the same way about stoned characters as you do about drunk ones. I just. don’t. think. it’s. funny. The humor lasts about, mmm, 3 minutes before I’m so annoyed by these people who think being that irretrievably stupid is amazingly funny. Um, no. Eh, to each his own, I suppose.
It just depends on who is playing the drunk and if they can act or not. Ingrid Bergman in Norotious was a good drunk. In the Dairy of Bridget Jones, Rene Z was a good drunk. Brad Pitt in True Romance was a good stoner. Not everyone can do it. People who play drunk on tv are the horrible ones. They overact like crazy especially on soaps.
Will smith was good at being high in hitch. Funny.
My first point is that she really is funny. I have seen movies that have drunks just to have drunks and she actually contributes a lot to this movie. My second being they made a movie people relate to. The whole plot is about a bunch of kids who go out to a bunch of bars in search of a band. A bunch of kids going out pretty much always results in at least one drunk. She could have been annoying, but I thought the movie was really a lot better because of her contribution.
Any movie that is solely about seeing who can be the most belligerent is annoying, but sometimes the drunk person really is the highlight of the night. Give this one a chance
My first point is that she really is funny. I have seen movies that have drunks just to have drunks and she actually contributes a lot to this movie. My second being they made a movie people relate to. The whole plot is about a bunch of kids who go out to a bunch of bars in search of a band. A bunch of kids going out pretty much always results in at least one drunk. She could have been annoying, but I thought the movie was really a lot better because of her contribution.
Any movie that is solely about seeing who can be the most belligerent is annoying, but sometimes the drunk person really is the highlight of the night. Give this one a chance
I have no problem with reasonable alcohol and drug use. I’m not usually put off by drunk characters. Sometimes it will bother me when it seems harmful or sad, but isn’t intended to be that way. I felt vindicated somewhat by your confession. I had a similar reaction to the original! “Nick and Nora” movies – the “Thin Man” series from the 30’s and 40’s. I was on a committee running a film festival fund raiser. We showed old films in historic theaters. That year, the committee wanted to show a “Thin Man” movie for our Comedy night. I said that I recognized the appeal but I was put off by the constant drinking. The characters in the Thin Man movies seemed to always have a cocktail in their hand, and were at least a little bit buzzed all the time. Everything that happened good, or bad, called for cocktails. Maybe I was thinking more about the characters inspiring real folks to live like their idols. I got blank stares all around the table. I can’t remember what we finally picked.
I hate drunk people going to see the movies. At least on the screen they are controlled, in the cinemas – they’re belching and farting loud pigs. Oink!
My ex husband Fred did a lot of swilling, belching and farting but you never saw that on the television. And if you think being drunk on television is bad – watch someone tripping over in a huge pile of Dino dropping and that might give you cause to complain.
SHEEEEEEIT
Seeing drunk people on tv doesn’t worry me – it’s the lack of dead people that bothers me most. I get very lonely.
Dudley Moore was great at being a funny drunk. This ho is not.
Anna Farris was a great stoner in Smiley Face. She would have killed in this role.
Anna Farris was a great stoner in Smiley Face. She would have killed in this role.
I see drunk people on the streets, in cars, on buses, in bars, etc., every day. Why should it bother me to see someone drunk in the movies?
As for funny drunks, the drunk act as it was called, is as old as the hills, and often times it’s very funny. Doesn’t mean you have to like it. There’s many other kinds of comedy, and some of it is much more controversial (and to some people, off putting) than drunkenness.
I think that Will Smith was pretty funny playing drunk in Hancock, he always plays the good guy and his acting as a nasty, rude and completely drunk character was amazing
Is this article even relevant?
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If they made a television show about meeeeee, I’d show them how to hit a value for money bloody bottle of prime time liquor without having to smash it over a tv executive’s head just to win a pathetic rating or two in a past prime time slot not big enough to fit a tiny weeny stamp.