Get a Job

Directed by Dylan Kidd, Get a Job follows several friends, including Miles Teller’s Will, Anna Kendrick’s Jillian, and Brandon T. Jackson’s Luke, as they attempt to carve out a post-college career for themselves. It’s clear virtually from the get-go that Kidd, working from a screenplay written by Kyle Pennekamp and Scott Turpel, isn’t looking to deliver a relatable, authentic look at twentysomething life, as Get a Job, for the most part, boasts an exceedingly (and often egregiously) broad sensibility that’s reflected in its proliferation of over-the-top jokes and gags – with the ensuing sitcom-like atmosphere paving the way for a decidedly hit-and-miss midsection. (It’s difficult, for example, to see the value in a subplot involving Jay Pharoah’s obnoxious, larger-than-life pimp.) There’s little doubt, then, that Get a Job benefits substantially from the charismatic efforts of its virtual cavalcade of familiar faces within periphery roles, and it’s hard to deny, certainly, that Teller and Kendrick’s predictably winning work here is matched by such inherently compelling periphery players as Bryan Cranston, Alison Brie, and Marcia Gay Harden – which, when coupled with a relatively satisfying final stretch, cements the picture’s place as a watchable (yet entirely forgettable) little comedy. (It doesn’t hurt, surely, that the movie runs less than 80 minutes without credits.)

**1/2 out of ****

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