Mean People Suck

I've watched numerous short films either in school or on the net. And on the whole almost 90% of them are awful. But this film really held well together to make it an entertaining well contructed story. I would recommend film students to watch this film to see how a short film should be made.

Okay, I go to NYU, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. Of course, because I'm at NYU, I have to watch a whole bunch of s****y student films. Among them was this one, noteworthy only for the casting (which, allegedly, was due to a high school friendship with at least one of the actors). What seemed like it might be a decent idea quickly degenerated into a stupid attempt to be as "shocking" as possible, with poorly staged (and horribly scripted) "worst deeds ever" being shown. I won't go into the soundtrack, because as cliched as its use is, I actually like "American Woman" and a few others.

I don't want to spend longer writing this review than it takes to watch the short, but I'll just hit a few more bullet points: -- Remember in "Can't Hardly Wait", when they freeze frame on every major character and give you quick yearbook bios of them? So does the guy who made this. -- A scene that's supposed to be awful (a dog being beaten to death), and make the audience hate the main characters, but instead inspired laughter from the crowd. This caused more than one person to say that they hated the scene because it was so clear that it shouldn't have been funny. We're not talking about singin' "Singin' In The Rain" during a rape or anything. Trust me, I'll laugh at plenty of things that would make the Pope weep, and I laughed at that part, but doing so made me, and everybody else, angry. -- It freeze frames on the girl from "7th Heaven" when her face is blocked by her hair, yet we're supposed to recognize her later. -- James Franco (a truly talented actor, and the reason I was looking forward to seeing the short, actually) is forced to play Daniel Desario (from "Freaks and Geeks") again, only without the oppurtunity to provide it with any nuance. Even so, he rises above the material and is able to give portions of a powerful performance, whenever he doesn't have to speak.

I only bothered to review this because nobody else ever had, proving once and for all that the IMDb should not allow student films, period. If they're going to, though, it should be worthy ones, and not just because the cast happens to be in other things (which is, officially, the reason this is listed).

However, it is obvious that the guy who made this has a strong future as a casting agent.

I attended NYU's film school and whole-heartedly agree with ThatGuamGuy. "Mean People Suck" was a much-hyped film that even received some NYU awards for writing. Upon viewing the film, it was clear that all the hype was due to it's cast. How it got an award for writing is beyond me. Maybe the script was actually good. It is difficult noticing such things when the film itself is so bad.

Regardless of the big name actors or Hollywood talent that Mr. Cole Weiss somehow assembled for MEAN PEOPLE SUCK, it is a perfectly executed short. It refuses to get pretentious, weird, or strange for the sake or being strange. In fact, it makes a point in 8 minutes and ends.

As a result, I have adamant respect for the filmmaker and am not surprised he's being picked up to direct his first feature. He's fully aware of the medium, and how to take an idea and work with it.

Whether you like the subject matter or not--well, that's subjective.

Still, I wish there was a few more scenes with Bev Mitchell. She is my favorite doll in the world. Nonetheless, I'll settle for Dominique "Lolita" Swain and hope that someday my short film garners me the same amount of acclaim. Maybe I can also nab Bev.

I have no idea what these people are whining about. I am an NYU student and saw the film at the GEN ART FILM FESTIVAL this past weekend. It was amazing! I guess other film students can be the biggest critics, but I really thought the short was fantastic. The writing worked. The actors were brilliant. The direction was simple. Keeping in mind it was a student film, I couldn't believe how far this guy took it. It just pains me to read about film students not supporting one another. I would go see anybody's student film and look for the good over the bad, just to support them as artists. But aside from that, if I could make a film like that, I would be more than pleased. And it seems it's done very well for the director, so he'll be laughing all the way to the bank.