''Loser'' is a 2000 American
teen
Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film written and directed by
Amy Heckerling
Amy Heckerling (born May 7, 1954) is an American filmmaker. An alumna of both New York University and the American Film Institute, she directed the commercially successful films ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), ''National Lampoon's Europ ...
. Starring
Jason Biggs
Jason Matthew Biggs (born May 12, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Jim Levenstein in the '' American Pie'' comedy film series and Larry Bloom in the Netflix original series ''Orange Is the New Black''. He als ...
,
Mena Suvari
Mena Alexandra Suvari (; born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, producer, fashion designer and model. After beginning her career as a model and guest-starring on several television shows, she made her film debut in the 1997 drama '' Now ...
and
Greg Kinnear
Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997).
Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, including '' Sabrina'' (1 ...
, it is about a fish-out-of-water college student (Biggs) who falls for a classmate (Suvari), unaware she is in a relationship with their English professor (Kinnear). The film, Heckerling's first after 1995's ''
Clueless
''Clueless'' is a 1995 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It stars Alicia Silverstone with supporting roles by Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd. It was produced by Scott Rudin and Robert ...
'' and a remake of the 1960 film ''
The Apartment
''The Apartment'' is a 1960 American romantic comedy-drama film directed and produced by Billy Wilder from a screenplay he co-wrote with I. A. L. Diamond. It stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, Dav ...
'', was a box-office failure and received negative reviews.
Plot
Paul Tannek, a small-town, intelligent kid from the
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
, is accepted into
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
on an academic scholarship. Following the advice of his father, he tries to gain friends by being polite and interested in others. However, Paul’s new roommates—Chris, Adam, and Noah, three rich, spoiled, obnoxious city boys—brand Paul a loser because they resent Paul’s polite behavior,
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
background, and determination for an education. After Paul is thrown out of the dorm when the trio concocts a false story to the housing administration about Paul’s attitude, Paul is forced to take up residence in a veterinary hospital. Banned from throwing parties in the dorm because of an
alcohol poisoning
Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ps ...
incident, Chris manipulates Paul into letting him, Adam, and Noah use the hospital to throw parties.
Paul meets classmate Dora Diamond and develops an attraction to her, unaware that she is having an affair with their decorated but highly pretentious English professor Edward Alcott. Dora is equally as intelligent as Paul, but doesn't have a scholarship and works shifts as a waitress in a strip club to pay for her tuition until she is unceremoniously fired. To avoid a long daily commute which she can no longer afford, Dora asks Alcott if she can temporarily live with him. Alcott selfishly declines her request for fear of losing his tenure at the university if his relationship with Dora is found out. After Paul and Dora bump into each other one night, Paul invites Dora to an
Everclear concert when he learns she is a fan. Dora agrees to the date, but first goes to a job interview for a night shift in a convenience store, a position she is ultimately denied because she is a woman. Adam happens to be at the same store buying beer and invites Dora to a party which she accepts, but says she will be there only for a short time so she can meet Paul at the concert. At the party, one of the boys slips a
roofie into Dora's drink, causing her to pass out. Paul returns home dejected from the concert to a huge mess and an unresponsive Dora and immediately rushes her to the hospital. At the hospital, Paul pretends to be her boyfriend since neither he nor Dora can afford to keep her there overnight. He also learns that Dora listed Alcott as her case of emergency contact which he tells Chris the next morning without thinking. Alcott tells emergency officials he doesn't really know Dora when they contact him.
Paul bonds with Dora as she recovers and they start to develop feelings for one another; he also learns that Dora cannot see past her blind infatuation with Alcott, as she tells Paul that Alcott loves her but does not want a relationship. While Paul continues with his studies, Dora searches for a new job. She pulls Paul out of class and invites him out to celebrate receiving a spot in a medical experiment. They steal a loaf of bread from a bakery, coffee from a dispenser in the park, and sneak into a Broadway show. Paul goes out to grab a pizza and a movie for both of them hoping it may lead to something further between them only to return to find Alcott, who has changed his mind about Dora living with him. Alcott reveals to Dora that Chris, Noah, and Adam are now blackmailing him with the knowledge of their relationship in return for passing grades, and also tells her he believes Paul is in on the scheme. After discovering roofies were involved at the party, Paul steals Noah's supply and replaces them with placebos. Paul then pays a visit to Alcott's office to ask how Dora is doing and is instead given his final exam as a take-home test by Alcott to buy his silence. Paul takes the moral high ground and refuses the test, jeopardizing his scholarship and place in the university.
Dora overhears Paul on the phone with his father talking about how much he misses her. Alcott then admits he learned that Paul had nothing to do with the blackmail, but still intends to fail him. Dora then realizes that Paul is the one who really loves her and terminates her affair with Alcott, beginning a relationship with Paul. Afterward, Adam, Noah, and Chris' behavior get the better of them and their lives plummet into failure, while Alcott is found out and sent to prison for having an affair with a different student who is underage, and Paul and Dora remain happy in their relationship.
Cast
Music
The music was composed by
David Kitay
David Joseph Kitay (born October 23, 1961) is an American film composer.
Filmography
References
External links
Official website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitay, David
Living people
1961 births
American film score composers
American male film sc ...
. No official soundtrack was ever released. These are the songs contained in the film:
''Loser'' soundtrack
Track listing
Michael Penn
Michael Daniel Penn (born August 1, 1958) is an American musician, singer and composer. He is noted for the 1989 single " No Myth", a top 20 hit in the US and successful in several other countries.
Early life
Penn was born in the Greenwich Vi ...
's song "
No Myth", featured prominently in the final scene and during the credits, was not included in the soundtrack.
Reception
Box office
The film opened at number eight at the North American box office, making $6,008,611 in its opening weekend. The film generated a total of $15.6 million in the US. It failed further when released worldwide, grossing a total of just $2.7 million. The film did not break even on its production costs.
In a 2017 interview with ''
The Ringer'', director
Amy Heckerling
Amy Heckerling (born May 7, 1954) is an American filmmaker. An alumna of both New York University and the American Film Institute, she directed the commercially successful films ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), ''National Lampoon's Europ ...
said the reason for the film’s failure was the studio’s insistence on a “watered down” PG-13 rating, even though Heckerling and the studio executives who greenlit the film intended for the movie to be an R-rated comedy.
Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has a score of 24% based on reviews from 96 critics, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's consensus states: "In the grand tradition of teen flicks, ''Loser'' comes across as another predictable and underwritten movie with nothing new to offer." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, it has a 35% score based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gives the film two stars out of four. He enjoyed the performance of Kinnear as well as the chemistry between the two leads, but found the film otherwise unremarkable.
Film critic
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli (born September 25, 1967) is an American film critic and former engineer. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ''ReelViews.'' Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of r ...
gave the film 3 out 4 stars, stating that the film was one of the "pleasant surprises" of the 2000 film season.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loser
2000 films
2000 romantic comedy films
2000s teen comedy films
American independent films
American teen comedy films
Columbia Pictures films
Films directed by Amy Heckerling
Films scored by David Kitay
Films set in New York City
Films shot in Canada
Films shot in New York City
Films with screenplays by Amy Heckerling
Films set in universities and colleges
Films about scandalous teacher–student relationships
2000s English-language films
2000s American films