Oh, hey – did you miss me? Like a bad rash?<\/p>\n
In case you didn’t notice, and shame<\/i> on you if you didn’t, ArtsJournal was down last week. Doug has written up the whole sad tale<\/a>, and I’m fairly certain the ordeal shaved Many Years off his life. Thanks, Doug, for getting us back on the interwebz. World, feel free to start spinning again: Life’s a Pitch <\/i>is back. <\/p>\n I powered through the month of April’s magazines this weekend, and one thing that stood out in a TimeOut NY <\/i>was a review of this movie The Joneses<\/a>.<\/i> Another was a Carnegie Hall ad, but we’ll deal with that tomorrow. <\/p>\n So, The Joneses: <\/i>In addition to being Demi Moore’s return to the big screen (woot?), the film is about marketing! Product placement! Good Old Fashioned American Consumerism! Capitalist pig-dogs! In other words, just a few of my favorite things. Here’s the TimeOut <\/i>review<\/a>:<\/p>\n As consumers become hyperaware of–and more immune to–advertising’s The spot-on cast almost And here’s the trailer:<\/p>\n\n
\neffects, the stealth-marketing industry has developed some truly
\nsinister ways to control how we spend our hard-earned wages. That’s the
\nthesis of cowriter-director Derrick Borte’s depressing satire, which
\ntracks the titular clan that demands to be kept up with after moving
\ninto a McMansion community. The setup is brilliant, even if it doesn’t
\nplay out so cleverly: The Joneses aren’t an actual family, but a
\nsleeper cell of ambitious marketeers hired by a mysterious
\ncorporation–the golf nut “dad” (Duchovny) being the most recent
\nrecruit. All of the family members are silver-tongued Type A’s: the
\nfake high-schooler daughter (Heard) imploring her peers to buy the
\nlatest cosmetics and diet pills; the son (Ben Hollingsworth) hawking
\ntech gadgets and video games; and Mom (Moore) working her housewife
\nripple-effect integration at the salon.<\/p>\n
\nholds the movie together, but whatever potential this timely premise
\nhas is wasted on reworking the same gag about overconsumption. Once
\nromance gets in the way of business and one of the conniving Joneses
\nsuddenly finds their humanity, it’s only a matter of time before
\neverything implodes. More discomforting is that real Audis and Dell
\ncomputers show up among the fake luxuries, which means the joke’s
\nreally on us: Product placement strikes again!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n