''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'' is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by

John Krasinski John Burke Krasinski (; born October 20, 1979) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his role as Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom ''The Office''. He also served as a producer and occasional director of the series throughout its nin ...

, in his

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. Based on a short story collection of the same name by

David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', whi ...

Plot

Sara Quinn ( Julianne Nicholson) copes with a recent breakup by interviewing men as part of her graduate studies. Her intellectual endeavor has emotional consequences as the men’s twisted and revealing stories are juxtaposed against the backdrop of her own experience. As she begins to listen closely to the men around her, Sara must ultimately reconcile herself to the darkness that lies below the surface of human interactions.

Cast

* Julianne Nicholson as Sara Quinn *

Josh Charles Joshua Aaron Charles (born September 15, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for the roles of Dan Rydell on '' Sports Night; '' Will Gardner on '' The Good Wife'', which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations; and his early wo ...

as Subject #2 * Christopher Meloni as R / Subject #3 *

Will Arnett William Emerson Arnett (; born May 4, 1970) is a Canadian actor, comedian and producer. He is best known for his roles as Gob Bluth in the Fox/Netflix series '' Arrested Development'' (2003–2006, 2013, 2018–2019) and as the titular char ...

as Subject #11 * Ben Shenkman as Subject #14 *

Michael Cerveris Michael Cerveris (born November 6, 1960) is an American actor, singer, and guitarist. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including several Stephen Sondheim musicals: ''Assassins'', ''Sweeney Todd'', '' Road Show'', and '' Passi ...

as Subject #15 * Chris Messina as Subject #19 *

as Ryan / Subject #20 *

Ben Gibbard Benjamin Gibbard (born August 11, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie, with whom he has recorded ten studio albums, and as a membe ...

as Harry / Subject #20 * Lou Taylor Pucci as Evan / Subject #28 * Max Minghella as Kevin / Subject #28 * Timothy Hutton as Prof. Adams / Subject #30 * Clarke Peters as Subject #31 *

Bobby Cannavale Roberto Michael Cannavale (; born May 3, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for various television roles, including leading roles in '' Third Watch'', '' Vinyl'', and ''Mr. Robot'', as well as recurring roles in '' Will & Grace'', which ...

as Subject #40 * Frankie Faison as Subject #42 * Dominic Cooper as Daniel / Subject #46 *

Corey Stoll Corey Stoll (born March 14, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo on the Netflix political thriller series '' House of Cards'' (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in 20 ...

as Subject #51 * Joey Slotnick as Tad / Subject #59 *

Will Forte Orville Willis Forte IV ( ; born June 17, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Forte is known for being a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' (2002–2010), a recurring character on the show leading to a feature film ada ...

as Subject #72 * Rashida Jones as Hannah

Production

The film was shot in studios in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and exterior filming took place in

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and ...

, and on the campuses of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and

Brooklyn College , mottoeng = Nothing without great effort , established = , parent = CUNY , type = Public university , endowment = $98.0 million (2019) , budget = $123.96 m ...

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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 Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 40% based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 5.02/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Ambitious but uneven, John Krasinski's adaptation of David Foster Wallace's ''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'' tries hard but doesn't match the depth of the book." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film was selected for the US Dramatic Competition in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.2009 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films In Competition

References

External links

* *
John Krasinski Interview at AMCtv.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brief Interviews With Hideous Men 2009 films 2000s English-language films Films directed by John Krasinski 2009 comedy-drama films Films based on short fiction Films with screenplays by John Krasinski Films shot in New York (state) American comedy-drama films 2009 directorial debut films 2000s American films