When you're in an entertainment family like this, it must be fun. Some good elements here. Witty dialog, unique humor. The paparazzi characters were a nice touch. Nothing to dislike. Solid first effort.
20 Reviews
Solid First Feature Effort
Scott2712 January 2019
Cute Chick Flick
rolbyh200227 October 2021
Spectacular girly eye candy, very forgettable men.
jimmy-5342912 August 2019
There are actually a few things to like about this film.
Theoretically, there is no reason the average Joe on the street should (or could) relate to the lives of these characters. Movie stars, glamourous looking chicks, awkward movie directors, the moviestar boyfriend who looks like Johnny Depp...
I do find it interesting that certain aspects of the film would have raised eyebrows in previous eras, yet it would have to be considered quite tame by todays standards.
Izzy herself and her "year of male smorgasbording" might even have have been given some pretty unflattering labels, IF this were a different era!!
But she is gorgeous, and even if the characters dont really represent "everyday" people, the dramas they have are still relevant to the reality of life today.
So in that regard, the three female leads manage to pull it off, for me anyway.
They deliver likeable characters that somehow manage to inject a certain form of reality that makes you feel for them and their dramas.
Not every film has to have endless plots and deliver earthshattering realisations. I was a bit dubious after the first 20 minutes, but i am glad i kept watching. There was enough to keep me interested till the end, but maybe some of that is due to being a sucker for gorgeous blondes.
Not exceedingly great, but (all in all) a passable package as far as rom-coms go.
Theoretically, there is no reason the average Joe on the street should (or could) relate to the lives of these characters. Movie stars, glamourous looking chicks, awkward movie directors, the moviestar boyfriend who looks like Johnny Depp...
I do find it interesting that certain aspects of the film would have raised eyebrows in previous eras, yet it would have to be considered quite tame by todays standards.
Izzy herself and her "year of male smorgasbording" might even have have been given some pretty unflattering labels, IF this were a different era!!
But she is gorgeous, and even if the characters dont really represent "everyday" people, the dramas they have are still relevant to the reality of life today.
So in that regard, the three female leads manage to pull it off, for me anyway.
They deliver likeable characters that somehow manage to inject a certain form of reality that makes you feel for them and their dramas.
Not every film has to have endless plots and deliver earthshattering realisations. I was a bit dubious after the first 20 minutes, but i am glad i kept watching. There was enough to keep me interested till the end, but maybe some of that is due to being a sucker for gorgeous blondes.
Not exceedingly great, but (all in all) a passable package as far as rom-coms go.
Not too shabby, Deutch Family.
kaelyncecilia30 October 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This movie follows a woman wandering aimlessly through life guided by her (younger?) sister. The script is both smart and confusing. We are on this ride trying to see if Izzy will find happiness with a love interest or a path in life. Neither come to fruition. Her relationships to these men seem to be all based out of infatuation or the mystery of this flailing woman. I liked the genuine familial connection with her sister throughout the movie. I am not too certain as to why her dad's suicide was a part of the story. To prove that she had been a good sister all along? Seems a bit to heavy of subject to roll over in a just couple of scenes. All in all, I feel like they could have fleshed out a few parts of the plot, but the acting was okay and writing not bad either.
should sister switch
SnoopyStyle15 December 2018
Izzy Klein (Madelyn Deutch) is an X-Files-obsessed sheets-fearing M&Ms-eating mess. It's four years after her father's suicide. Her sister Sabrina (Zoey Deutch) is a Hollywood star. Her boyfriend Aaron Ezra dumps her and it's a series of awkward relationships with men. Her mother (Lea Thompson) and her young girlfriend Amythyst Stone are vegan soul walkers. Following her graduation, she moves to L.A. to live with her sister and her TV star boyfriend Sebastian Bennett.
Madelyn's writing has some fun takes. The sisters have good sibling chemistry. Lea's directing is functional but she should have understood the most important point. The protagonist should be played by the biggest star. The sisters should switch roles. Zoey has an awkward humor that would have worked great as Izzy. I'm sure that there is some autobiography in Izzy being the less successful older sister but the story can be reworked. This has a couple of laughs. It's some quirk and good heart. This could have been an indie darling with Zoey as the lead.
Madelyn's writing has some fun takes. The sisters have good sibling chemistry. Lea's directing is functional but she should have understood the most important point. The protagonist should be played by the biggest star. The sisters should switch roles. Zoey has an awkward humor that would have worked great as Izzy. I'm sure that there is some autobiography in Izzy being the less successful older sister but the story can be reworked. This has a couple of laughs. It's some quirk and good heart. This could have been an indie darling with Zoey as the lead.
Nothing Spectacular about the Men or the Almost Plotless Story
danew1323 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Other than enjoying seeing Lea and her daughters in a film, the movie starts and ends with no dramatic resolution. The main protagonist in this rather poorly written rom/com starts with no job and ends with no job.
She starts with losing a man and ends with losing a man. In a way, Madelyn Deutch's character sort of symbolizes some of the aimless millennials of America.
She doesn't know what she wants. She equates sex with love instead of working at relationhships. She has no skills and doesn't know where she going. In the end she still has no job or guy and fades away like Sweet Charity,"Living Hopefully Ever After."
She starts with losing a man and ends with losing a man. In a way, Madelyn Deutch's character sort of symbolizes some of the aimless millennials of America.
She doesn't know what she wants. She equates sex with love instead of working at relationhships. She has no skills and doesn't know where she going. In the end she still has no job or guy and fades away like Sweet Charity,"Living Hopefully Ever After."
Unspectacular
phd_travel14 September 2018
Apart from the quaintness of the real life Mother and Daughters thing this rom com is not that great. The way the cast delivers their one liners in a monotone makes it hard to appreciate the comedy. A little more mention of adult things than typical Lifetime. Not lol funny. The guys are a little unspectacular. Sometimes the shouting of the characters borders on shrill.
Not a must watch.
Not a must watch.
no
emailjamesgunter19 June 2018
While i applaud Zoey for throwing a bone to her entire family, Mama should've contributed to her retirement fund and stopped after Back To The Future, and her sister could easily be gainfully employed at Home Depot! ...this one just missed the mark all together.... If any of the Thompson / Deutch family members read this and feel compelled to refund my $5.99 just message me for my Paypal address
I loved it.
crystalcharee13 October 2018
I didn't realize that this movie was made by people who are related to each other until I read some of the reviews but that explains why the chemistry between them felt so natural and strong. I was happy to see Leah Thompson again, as it had been a while since Caroline in the City which was one of my favorite shows when I was young.
I loved this movie. It was pitch perfect from beginning to end with no false notes either in the acting or the writing. I don't know much about cinematography but nothing felt bad about that either. The plot isn't super-compelling; a young woman dates a string of losers and finds herself at the end -- we've seen it a million times. But it was nice to see it done so well. This movie wasn't a product, trying to sell a happy ending or a sad ending or the idea of true love or girl power or sister power or action figures, or anything.
It was just a story about a woman growing up and getting an idea of who she is. Her relationships both with herself and the people around her are believable, and she is quirky and likable and selfish and introspective and poetic and angry without being cartoonish about any of those things. It's audacious to expect a plot like this to hold the attention of an entire audience, or at least it would have been two years ago. This is exactly the kind of story we need in 2018 (and it came out last year, so it's perfect timing).
Someone else described the movie about a woman who ruins her relationships with a bunch of men but that's not accurate. The men were mostly terrible, except for the last one, all seeing her as an appendage that either completes or doesn't complete them. To be fair, she sees them the same way, again, until the last guy.
No one, from the newly-gay mom to the movie-star sister felt over-the-top or one-dimensional. Some of the tertiary characters were less dimensional, but they should have been, as the story wasn't about them. But they all felt believable, as though there was more teach each of them, like they all were main characters of their own stories, which was underlined by the candid interviews that each of her love interests had with an unidentified documentarian or viewer.
I actually liked this because I relate to the habit of talking to an imaginary interviewer about my life in the past tense as a way of trying to figure out how I feel about things that are happening in the present. Not sure when or why I developed this habit but I think a lot of people do it, so I wasn't confused when I saw it on screen. It also helped underline how each of the men saw the main character as a reflection of themselves and what she was to them instead of an actual, autonomous, multidimensional human being.
I also really liked the famous-sister aspect with the paparazzi being present almost as scenery. Usually a movie about a movie star or her not-famous sister will center around ambition and jealousy and this didn't. It was just the sister's job to be a movie star. So the setting and some of the plot meandered into movie making but the focus never did.
I think my favorite part was the relationship between the sisters. They had a kind of semi-functional dynamic in the beginning, which changed and repaired throughout the movie. Whatever silent resentments and baggage they had about each other, which naturally build up over a lifetime for any siblings, weren't exaggerated or made the focus of either the plot or their relationship. They liked each other and sometimes didn't, respected each other and sometimes didn't, and loved each other -- always.
Anyway, I don't write reviews very often but I wasn't expecting much when I clicked on it and ended up really enjoying the movie. I was curious about who wrote it, which is how I ended up here and it upset me to see the bad reviews, and as much as those people are entitled to their opinions, I thought I'd add mine to the mix and balance out the overall impression of the move to anyone else stumbling across these reviews.
I loved this movie. It was pitch perfect from beginning to end with no false notes either in the acting or the writing. I don't know much about cinematography but nothing felt bad about that either. The plot isn't super-compelling; a young woman dates a string of losers and finds herself at the end -- we've seen it a million times. But it was nice to see it done so well. This movie wasn't a product, trying to sell a happy ending or a sad ending or the idea of true love or girl power or sister power or action figures, or anything.
It was just a story about a woman growing up and getting an idea of who she is. Her relationships both with herself and the people around her are believable, and she is quirky and likable and selfish and introspective and poetic and angry without being cartoonish about any of those things. It's audacious to expect a plot like this to hold the attention of an entire audience, or at least it would have been two years ago. This is exactly the kind of story we need in 2018 (and it came out last year, so it's perfect timing).
Someone else described the movie about a woman who ruins her relationships with a bunch of men but that's not accurate. The men were mostly terrible, except for the last one, all seeing her as an appendage that either completes or doesn't complete them. To be fair, she sees them the same way, again, until the last guy.
No one, from the newly-gay mom to the movie-star sister felt over-the-top or one-dimensional. Some of the tertiary characters were less dimensional, but they should have been, as the story wasn't about them. But they all felt believable, as though there was more teach each of them, like they all were main characters of their own stories, which was underlined by the candid interviews that each of her love interests had with an unidentified documentarian or viewer.
I actually liked this because I relate to the habit of talking to an imaginary interviewer about my life in the past tense as a way of trying to figure out how I feel about things that are happening in the present. Not sure when or why I developed this habit but I think a lot of people do it, so I wasn't confused when I saw it on screen. It also helped underline how each of the men saw the main character as a reflection of themselves and what she was to them instead of an actual, autonomous, multidimensional human being.
I also really liked the famous-sister aspect with the paparazzi being present almost as scenery. Usually a movie about a movie star or her not-famous sister will center around ambition and jealousy and this didn't. It was just the sister's job to be a movie star. So the setting and some of the plot meandered into movie making but the focus never did.
I think my favorite part was the relationship between the sisters. They had a kind of semi-functional dynamic in the beginning, which changed and repaired throughout the movie. Whatever silent resentments and baggage they had about each other, which naturally build up over a lifetime for any siblings, weren't exaggerated or made the focus of either the plot or their relationship. They liked each other and sometimes didn't, respected each other and sometimes didn't, and loved each other -- always.
Anyway, I don't write reviews very often but I wasn't expecting much when I clicked on it and ended up really enjoying the movie. I was curious about who wrote it, which is how I ended up here and it upset me to see the bad reviews, and as much as those people are entitled to their opinions, I thought I'd add mine to the mix and balance out the overall impression of the move to anyone else stumbling across these reviews.
The Year of Spectacular Men
JoBloTheMovieCritic24 October 2020
Terrible movie
beret_v28 March 2024
This movie is terrible, bad acting in 90% of the scenes, the script is a mess, some actors look like they took some Walmart janitors in a hurry to fill a place.... It has no purpose, the movie seems to be made for shallow people.... Some of the actors are OK but that's not enough to make the movie a success, the only good thing about this movie is that they reminded us what a mess life can be for 20 year olds who are still wandering around and can't find their way into anything. And about the fact that life is not always ideal.... I don't even know what else to write, I'm speechless...I don't even know what else to write, I'm speechless, I hope that all participants in this project will learn a lesson and not make bad movies in the future.
I totally recommend it...
xeniamotsou23 December 2018
Okay, I realize this isn't a classic and I understand why many people didn't like it, since at the end of the day it's all about taste. What I don't understand is, why are there so many low ratings when it's clear that the movie fulfilled its purpose. I rated it so high compared to most people because it was lovely and I think the overall rating doesn't do it justice. Furthermore I like these kinds of movies that follow somebody's journey through life, especially when they are at a low point. And this one really didn't disappoint me. We watched our young protagonist deal with pretty much everyday problems of a woman. I mean I get why for some people this would be kind of boring since more or less we deal with things like that in real life, but that's exactly one of the reasons I liked it. It's painfully realistic and it seems to me that it comes from a place of love for one's family and anguish for what's gonna come next. It isn't your typical comedy, but it made me laugh, it made me cry, and I'll admit it was kind of awkward at times. But hey, isn't that life?
a sweet and quirky film
jacquilangton5 August 2018
The film has some poor reviews on this page. I imagine a story written about a young woman and finding oneself is not going to appeal to everyone. This film is female driven and there is a big market for that out there. The main actors are endearing and the story of being lost and confused would be relatable to many.
The fact that three of the main characters were family made this feel warm and authentic. The second act which becomes more about family than about men was my favourite. Recommend this for anyone who likes films made by hand, with a good soundtrack and a few good laughs.
The fact that three of the main characters were family made this feel warm and authentic. The second act which becomes more about family than about men was my favourite. Recommend this for anyone who likes films made by hand, with a good soundtrack and a few good laughs.
Wasn't sure if I was going to like it and then I did
liddlealyssa26 November 2018
Okay, so I was a bit unsure at the beginning. Parts of it felt forced and I really didn't like Sabrina (at the beginning). But as I got into it, I really fell in love with it. I think that it is a really great film about growing up and growing into change and being with family and sort of finding yourself, I guess. I really loved it, and I will recommend it to anyone.
The Ending is what makes Year of Spectacular Men worthwhile
fremontpea25 April 2021
Directed by Lea Thompson of Back to the Future fame and led by her two daughters, the family affair comes through the screen in an inimitable authenticity. The various men who come and go in Izzy's life has been tread before. The movie picks up emotional undertones when it moves to San Francisco, as Izzy finally confides a family secret to Sabrina.
Californians will enjoy the backdrop (LA and SF resident)
Californians will enjoy the backdrop (LA and SF resident)
Stuck in my head for over a year.
larpeterson21 February 2021
I keep coming back to this movie. The relationship between the sisters, the themes of becoming an adult and moving away from grief, the music. Of course this movie was made by a mother and her daughters - it so brilliantly captures those relationships. I really hope they have more stories in them.
The low score this film received on IMDB motivated me to write this review, my first. I realize this is clearly a result of not enough women contributing. Come on ladies - make your voices heard more often.
The low score this film received on IMDB motivated me to write this review, my first. I realize this is clearly a result of not enough women contributing. Come on ladies - make your voices heard more often.
A Spectacular Film
hodeslily27 June 2018
I'm a huge fan of Zoey Deutch, and when I heard that she was doing a film with her family I couldn't wait to see it. When I finally did see I was not disappointed. The journey that Izzy goes through of trying to make something of herself while trying to find out who she is, while also dealing with the hardships of the relationships she finds herself in is very relatable. Izzy and Sabrina also show that no matter what you do, you family will always be there. I loved this film and it is defiantly worth the money
Great movie! All the actors do very well
marykshaw-207999 June 2019
Another reviewer wrote that they should have put this more famous sister in lead. By this standard, no actor should get a lead if there is a more famous actor in the movie...not only is the concept asinine but the lead really carried her weight. She was supposed to be lost and the sister plays the perfect heckling sibling. Very cute movie, very well done. Great directorial debut as well.
Enjoyable
ascdean21 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I really liked this. The chemistry between all the characters is great which makes sense since they're family. It's about trying to find yourself after college and with no support or direction. It's relatable. It's cute. It's quirky. Is it the best movie I've ever seen? No. But it's real and that's what makes it great. The only thing I was disappointed in is I really wanted her and Charlie Reed to end up together or at least work out their issues! A little closure on that would have been nice. Otherwise totally worth the watch!
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