Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (film)
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Krasinski, in his directorial debut based on a short story collection of the same name by David Foster Wallace. Plot. Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson) copes with a recent breakup by interviewing men as part of her graduate studies. Her intellectual endeavor has emotional consequences as the men’s twisted and revealing stories are juxtaposed against the backdrop of her own experience. As she begins to listen closely to the men around her, Sara must ultimately reconcile  herself to the darkness that lies below the surface of human interactions. Production. The film was shot in studios in Brooklyn, New York and exterior filming took place in Staten Island, New York, and on the campuses of Columbia University and Brooklyn College. Reception. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 40% based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 5.02/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Ambitious but uneven, John Krasinski's adaptation of David Foster Wallace's "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" tries hard but doesn't match the depth of the  book." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film was selected for the US Dramatic Competition in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.