CHICAGO - MOVIE REVIEWS HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS...

MOVIE REVIEWS HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS...

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People , based on the real life of British critic Toby Young, is getting mixed reviews from the real-life ones. The film, says Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times , "is possibly the best movie that could be made about Toby Young that isn't rated NC-17." He awards the film three and a half stars. Ruthe Stein in the San Francisco Chronicle regards the movie as "a sharp-witted satire of celebrity journalism and has much to recommend it. ... It seems to be saying that journalists getting too cozy with the celebrities they write about isn't healthy. But you might miss this point because you're too busy laughing." And Bob Strauss in the Los Angeles Daily News writes, "The film can be quite funny and maintains a devilish but fair outlook on high-end celebrity journalism." On the other hand, Manohla Dargis in the New York Times calls the movie "crushingly unfunny and slopped-together." Peter Howell in the Toronto Globe & Mail describes it as "relentlessly mirthless." And Lou Lumenick in the New York Post considers it "heavy-handed, unfunny."

07/10/2008