MYST Post #2: The Internship

Originally, my intention was not to watch this movie. I was planning to watch The Lego Movie in theaters, but I read the schedule wrong and ended up renting The Internship from RedBox instead. I decided to choose this movie because I started it a while back, but never had the chance to finish it. This movie is about two guys who used to work in sales until their company shut down. With very little education and skills, they did not know what to do with the rest of their lives. One of the characters, Billy played by Vince Vaughn, looked up a Google internship opportunity for them that could lead to future jobs. Although they had a random team that didn't get along at first and didn't have much knowledge, they ended up winning the competitions and earning jobs at Google through teamwork and their creativity and uniqueness. Overall, I enjoyed the movie very much and was glad I finally finished it. It was very witty and the kind of humor I enjoy, but it was a bit predictable except for the slight twist in the end.

This movie included many well-known actors, like Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, but as well as some random actors, like Tobit Raphael. The director, Shawn Levy, chose all the actors in the movie because they all fit into their parts in some way. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star in Wedding Crashers together as two men who, as the title of the movie says, like to crash weddings because their own love life is going down the drain. They bring the comedy aspect to both movies and work very well together. They are able to perform well together because they have similar personalities. Rose Byrne is another actor that has a similar role in both the movies The Internship and Bridesmaids. In Bridesmaids, she plays the friend who is very self-motivated and has to make sure everything is perfect for the wedding since she has nothing better to do with her life. In The Internship, she is a very goal-oriented person who works for Google and does nothing for herself to make herself happy, like having a relationship. In both movies, she plays the role of a women who cares more about other things than herself, which distracts her from the fact that she isn't happy the way she is. For some of the other characters, instead of being chosen for other roles they played in other movies, they were chosen based on their real life situations. Dylan O'Brien recently turned 21 before the movie was filmed, so he was chosen because he could now participate in the scenes that involved strip clubs and alcohol. This also means that he is apart of the generation of technology, so he is portrayed as a guy that is always on his phone. Tobit Raphael and Josh Brener, some less known actors, attended UCLA and Harvard, respectively, recently. Raphael, being from UCLA, was able to relate to the pressure he was put under and being "that guy that had a rough childhood." Brener came from Harvard, so he was used to being pushed and a kind of "nerdy" guy. He is also a huge fan of Harry Potter, so the one scene with the game was actually improvised from the knowledge he had. The Internship contained many characters that were well-known and not, but they were all chosen because they fit the part, not just for their name.

In my opinion, one of the best scenes of the movie would be when the group of them - Billy, Nick, Stuart, Neha, Yo Yo, and Lyle played by Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Dylan O'Brien, Tiya Sircar, Tobit Raphael, and Josh Brener respectively - were trying to come up an app that would earn the most revenue. The scene starts off with medium shots of Billy, Neha, and Stuart. This allows the audience to see the hand motions that they are using such as fidgeting and using their phone to look up information. Then the camera starts to pan as Yo Yo walks from one side to the other saying that they should brainstorm ideas by looking up information like past apps that were popular and see if there is a connection between them. This sparks up an idea for Billy in which he starts to describe his "exchange-o-gram" idea. During his explanation, Levy uses many jump shots in order to show all the characters and their reactions to this idea. A lot of times, it shows interjections from the other team members with how they claim that this is the same idea as Instagram, which Billy refuses to accept. There are also interjections, mostly from Lyle, about how Billy says "on the line"when he should be saying "online." (This "online" versus "on the line" scene is my favorite part in the movie and it actually made me laugh out loud non-stop.) These quick shots allow us to see all sides of the characters rather than focusing on just the speaker. The scene ends by a far shot that shows the entire team huddled together, showing that they are trying very hard to make a successful app and win the competition.

The Internship used a variety of angles and shots, but it was still mainly medium shots and close-ups. Since most of the time they are sitting down, medium shots were used to show any upper body movement in the head and arms. Close-ups were also used to show the emotions and expressions of the character when another character was talking. They would usually be faces of disgust/disagreement or of confusion since most of the characters didn't understand what Billy and Nick were talking about since they were so "old-school." There were also many uses of jump shots and panning throughout the movie to show the multitude of characters and the actions of each in the scenes. This helped the audience to understand everything that was going on and allowed them to feel as if they were right there inside the movie with the characters. In the movie, there was also one specific instance of slow motion that I noticed and that stuck inside my head. It was used when Yo Yo was taking his first shot of alcohol. This effect was added to add a sense of intrigue with how Yo Yo would react to drinking it. The close-up and slow motion shot was able to let the audience see Yo Yo wince in pain, but then scream out of excitement. Lastly, the movie had a lot of improvisation especially with the characters that Vince Vaughn, Dylan O'Brien, and Josh Brener played. They got so into their parts that they started to make up their own lines, which made the movie more realistic as to how one would act in such situations. They also improvised to make the lines be more of what they would actually say in real life if it happened to them.

This movie, The Internship, exceeded my expectations in the cast that they hired and in the screenplay. It was filled with my kind of humor and incorporated many types of cinematic elements that made the movie flow well, therefore, deserving a 4.4/5 stars in my book. I was happy to be able to finally finish this movie, although I would still like to see The Lego Movie. Maybe I'll actually read the schedule right next time.