"How To Lose Friends & Alienate People"
At Quality 16 and Showcase
MGM

3.5 out of 5 stars

As the title forecasts, “How To Lose Friends & Alienate People” is a learning experience. And who better to assume the role of teacher than eccentric Brit Simon Pegg?

Pegg ("Hot Fuzz") plays Sidney Young, a magazine writer whose character is patterned after real-life oddball Toby Young. The movie is based on Toby’s memoir, which details his experiences as a writer for the British magazine Modern Review and, later, his job failures at Vanity Fair. Marked by his ridiculous office antics involving strippers and animals, Toby Young easily makes for a laughable and enjoyable on-screen character.

The hilarity and overall success of the movie is largely contingent upon Pegg: He was made for this role. In ordering a transsexual stripper on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day and reciting quotations from American movies such as “Troy,” Pegg’s British wit appropriately shines through.

Though the movie is a good laugh, it goes deeper. Young's employment requires that he compromise his morals in the name of celebrity deification. A small fish in a big sea, it’s here that he discovers the unethical political workings of media culture.

With Jeff Bridges (“Iron Man”), Megan Fox (“Transformers”) and Kirsten Dunst (“Spider-Man”) by his side, Pegg leads a strong cast in this comical tale of a celebrity journalist trying to make it to the top — even if stunts like hiding the murder of a celebrity’s dog and breaking into a party with a famous pig nearly drown him along the way.

The hilarity and overall success of the movie is largely contingent upon Pegg: He was made for this role. In ordering a transsexual stripper on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day and reciting quotations from American movies such as “Troy,” Pegg’s British wit appropriately shines through.

Though the movie is a good laugh, it goes deeper. Young's employment requires that he compromises his morals in the name of celebrity deification. A small-fish-in-a-big-sea, it’s here that he discovers the unethical political workings of media culture.

With Jeff Bridges (“Iron Man”), Megan Fox (“Transformers”) and Kirsten Dunst (“Spider-Man”) by his side, Pegg leads a strong cast in this comical tale of a celebrity journalist trying to make it to the top — even if stunts like hiding the murder of a celebrity’s dog and breaking into a party with a famous pig nearly drown him along the way.