Rick

Managing The Unpleasant

Main Cast: Bill Pullman, Aaron Sanford, Agnes Bruckner, Dylan Baker

Director: Curtiss Clayton

My, my. What a bunch of unpleasant people. I was both repulsed and fascinated, and also a little sad, because I know that these characters are loosely (one hopes!) based on actual human beings.

The movie focuses on a guy named Rick (Pullman), aging but still hanging on to his hopes to ascend the corporate ladder. This explains the embarrassing male bonding he displays with his younger boss, Duke (Sanford). Who knows, it could lead to better things… something an old school friend named Buck (Baker) quickly shoots down in a “chance” encounter in a bar. Buck has his own company… and the card to prove it. He hints at darker things in their first meeting, but Rick doesn’t want anything to do with the other man. For the moment.

Meanwhile, Rick’s daughter Eve (Bruckner) and her friend are amusing themselves by typing suggestive, if not graphic, words in an X-rated chat room. Their pray this time is screen-name BIGBOSS, who enjoys the chat one must say. Okay, so Eve is not completely unpleasant, merely young. And Michelle (Sandra Oh), while a bit arrogant in her job interview with Rick, did not deserve such cruel treatment from Rick. She lays a curse on him later, of which he so richly deserves.

I won’t go on and reveal the plot, although I will say that it is dark and unforgiving. These people are fascinating in as much as they reveal the dark places in your own personality. A warning, rather, to keep well in mind.