Celeste and Jesse Forever

I am known for purposely creating awkward and weird situations simply for the fact that I think these types of situations are funny to me. So as a result of this I am awful person to date. For example, I took this country white girl to see the awful remake of Guess Who, the Bernie Mack version of Guess Whose Coming to Dinner with Ashton Kutcher. I thought that this alone was funny and somewhat stereotypical  in this day and time for multiple reasons but it gets better. There is a scene in there where the Kutcher is running off quite a few racist black jokes to the black family trying to fit in. The entire time I am dying laughing at the jokes but she was a bit apprehensive. Should I laugh and have him think I am racist too or do I just sit here uncomfortable and pray that this horrible scene is over soon? And of course I give her absolutely no indication that it’s ok for her to also enjoy this one bright moment in the movie, so she just sits there squirming wondering why she never listened to her father  in the first place when he warned her about dating black guys.  Somehow I still got laid after this but the relationship didn’t last very long. Maybe it’s because I took her to too many Bernie Mack movies.  Oh well, I have far worse examples than this but in hopes of ever getting a date again I’ll just stop with this story.

So I guess I go see dramatic romantic comedies in hopes of seeing someone who is actually worse than I am in their handling of relationships. This of course is an attempt to make myself feel better. Celeste and Jesse Forever was getting a lot of hype from the indie movie festival circuit and it does have Rashida Jones in it, so naturally I see it opening week.

This movie is about two best friends who are married, spend almost every waking moment together, and still share inside jokes in public. This makes their friends uncomfortable because they also happen to be getting a divorce.  One night at dinner when their best friends who are about to get married themselves confront them on this they finally begin to wonder if their situation is healthy for them.  It isn’t until Jesse(Samberg) goes on a date that they question whether or not they are handling things the right way. So naturally Celeste(Jones) gets drunk and does something that she convinces herself she regrets and things start to fall apart. And that’s what this entire movie is, scene after scene of both Celeste and Jesse getting themselves into situations that drives them further apart from each other when you can clearly see that that is not what they want. So there you are, the viewer watching this unfold as if it’s your friends doing this to each other because they are too stubborn or just too dumb to realize what the final outcome will be.

Now there are several funny moments in the movie, including almost every date that Celeste goes on.  Trust me, if you think you’re weird these guys will remind you that the land of Los Angeles clearly has you beat. So to help her cope with all of the issues she starts to smoke a lot with their friend Skillz who is a weed dealer who is also deciding between upping the ante by selling narcotics and becoming a grade school teacher. Meanwhile Samburg  is a toned version of his SNL self but the old people in the audience still don’t get him. So I was the only one laughing at him while the artsy fartsy old people looked at me in disgust. There is a particularly funny reoccurring joke with him and Celeste where they find penis shape objects and physically please them together. Yes, it is as weird as it sounds.

The only thing about this movie is, if you’re looking to escape into fantasy land, this may not be the movie for you. It’s just a funny look at how dumb we can be in how we handle real life situations and our emotions that accompany them. I rate this movie as FRESH but if you’re looking for a You’ve Got Mail type of moron fest you might not enjoy it.