Hideous Men, captivating adaptation

 ★★★★☆

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a wonderfully surprising and inventive collection of cinematic vignettes.

The film was adapted from the late David Foster Wallace's novel of the same title, published in 1999.

It follows Sara (Julianne Nicholson) on a non-linear, coping journey through her interviews with men about their sexual hang-ups and prowess. During this time she works as a teacher's assistant to an aloof, yet insightful, Professor Adams (Timothy Hutton) whom is also a subject.

The format of the film draws you into the detachment Sarah feels and allows the audience to see the subjects as she does, giving a first-person perspective.

Sarah is conducting these interviews after her long-time boyfriend, admittedly, cheated on her.

While Sarah is a privileged woman, functioning in a privileged society and dealing with her emotional turmoil in a privileged manner, it is easy to look past these facts and identify with the often hilarious and telling monologues she is recording.

The standout interview is held with Subject #42 (Frankie Faisson, The Wire) and is accompanied by a surreal flashback. In a plurality of worlds Faisson steps from the interview room into his monologue about his father's job as a bathroom attendant in segregated times. This is an incredibly moving and well orchestrated scene.

In an aberration of the rhythm from the rest of the film, this interview contains no attempt at sexual catharsis, as practically every other interviewee attempts to obtain.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a fascinating case study of the male psyche and its neurotic tendencies.

For first time director John Krasinski (Leatherheads, 2008) this is an amazing piece of cinema, and he adapted what was always assumed to be the un-adaptable in Wallace's work.