Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Failure" is a pretty short live action movie from the United States and this one came out in 2013, so it has its 5th anniversary next year and maybe, depending on when you read this review, it may be beyond that already. This is one of the rare efforts as writer and director by actor Michael Cera (Arrested Development) and he also plays the male character. The female is played by actress Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Rec). This is basically the story of a woman coming to a man's apartment despite both of them not knowing each other. I think the only real appeal in here is maybe a bit of a sexual reference about what may or may not happen if he wasn't so distant towards her. Sure you can say it's a metaphor for shutting people out of your lives or about being more open-minded in general or about other deep and meaningful aspects (maybe even a groupie story), but I am not sure if they convince me. Lets not forget that there is a complete stranger in his place, so making it 100% look in a way where he should have been kind instead of acting the way he acted is pretty foolish in my opinion, even if admittedly one must be a fool perhaps to send a stunner like Plaza away. Oh well.. now I am contradicting myself a bit. On a more positive note, the acting by both was decent and as I am not a great Cera fan at all, this was a delightful surprise. But the writing/plot just wasn't good enough for me to recommend the watch here. I give "Failure" a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.
