Review of Men, Women & Children (2014) by Kyle B — 22 Oct 2014

Jason Reitman has six feature length films to his name. The first I have not seen (Thank You for Smoking), the next two are masterpieces (Juno, Up in the Air), the one after was meh (Young Adult), and the last one was horrendous (Labor Day).

With this his 6th film all I have to say is, welcome back Mr. Reitman. This is a wonderful social commentary film that really speaks to us as a society. This ensemble is outstanding. Jennifer Gardner impressed me, Rosemaire DeMitt was wonderful as usual, Ansel Elgort gives a stronger performance in this than The Fault is Our Stars and I thought he was great in that, Kaitlyn Dever that shined in the little indie last year Short Term 12 and has just impressed me again, Dean Norris shows us such a different performance from Breaking Bad and Under the Dome, Judy Greer is once again outstanding as one of my favorite character actress, and some of these debut kids were star making performances.

And now a direct message to you Mr. Adam Sandler. STOP MAKING YOUR TRASH. You are such a great actor. You have the money to support your family from those trashy films you have been making these past few years so now do more of these films! If this was not such a competitive year in Best Actor race I think you would have a shot.

And now back to the readers. Yes Adam Sandler is amazing in this movie. The Screenplay is well written and Emma Thompson gives such a lovely narration of the film. I want to see this movie again because I really loved it and because the kid next to me was the rudest movie goer I have ever sat near in movie of all my life time and hopefully he will be the only one.

The movie does not come out in wide release for a few weeks and I couldn't tell you more how much this is a great movie. I think that adults that are not so hip into the technology age might not connect to this film and you might not like it but if you are, I think you will connect with this film in some way.

In alot of ensemble movies you get those really dumb "everyone's story is connected in this shocking way" like in Valentine's Day but the stories here connect effortlessly and appropriately.

Reitman focused on characters in good chunks of time with nice pacing throughout. If I had one complaint with this movie it is that JK Simmons could have had more to do. Like with Up in the Air, I really didn't want to leave these characters because I was invested so much.

I really loved this movie and I hope you do too.