men
About Schmidt
2002
25 Jan 2026
Boomer retires, loses wife, starts to unravel. With Jack Nickolson. Honestly, I was worried I would not like this one. An old white guy, comfortably middle class, can’t take care of himself, can’t stop himself from insulting and disappointing those around him. It’s tough to make a guy like that likeable.
So why does it work?
I read some writing advice once to the effect that your characters don’t have to be good at what they’re doing, but they have to give it what they got. A businessman trying to survive a plane crash in the desert even though he has 0 wilderness experience? Compelling. A teenager who can’t get out of a tight spot because, oops, she left her phone at home? Unacceptable!
We understand the kind of man Schmidt is from the first few scenes. He works a boring corporate job, his wife has looked after him since he left home, he represses his emotions in the name of rationality. Yes, he messes everything up, but it’s because he really doesn’t have the basic life skills to keep his house tidy or feed himself, and he doesn’t have the emotional management and communication skills to navigate the conflicts he gets into. He’s never had to learn that stuff, but he is giving it the best he’s got.
And if that means loading up a supermarket trolley with frozen pizzas because that’s the only thing he knows how to cook, then he will do that with gusto. If the only way he can express his feelings about his future son-in-law is through explaining his dream about aliens, he’s going to give that his best shot.
And I think that’s why we forgive him, even when he messes things up again and again. His character would normally be the obstacle in someone else’s story. He’s a side character turned main character, and somehow it works.
The box was all about how funny it is, and it is, but the humour arises out of the absurdity, with occasional splashes of slapstick. The pace is slow. The frustration high. We both enjoyed it.
Recommended if you like:
- Grumpy old men
- Road trip stories
The Northman
2017
02 Jan 2026
watched
Toxic masculinity, the movie. Our hero is hanging out with a bunch of war criminals when Bjork reminds him he's supposed to avenge his father.
He does, by sneaking around the hall killing men at night, like a ghost. This is the kind of stuff that made Grendel the bad guy, but I think we're still supposed to root for him?
No "be or not to be" for this guy, he's here for his vengeance and he'll do anything to get it. What a waste. The witchy stuff was cool, the gore and violence got a bit much.
Not for me.
Recommended if you like:
- Witchy
- Gore
- Deconstructed heroic tales
This is Pleasure
Mary Gaitskill
15 Mar 2025
finished
Ooh, #metoo fiction with some nuance and room for interpretation? In this timeline?
This is a novella about a Bad Man that asks: but how bad? Where is the line and when did he cross it?
Reading other reviews I can see they are all over the place. From sympathy for the Bad Man character to full throw-away-the-key condemnation. I think it’s a good book, it’s well written and I feel like I’m better for having read it.
Recommended if you like:
- Complexity and nuance
- Short books