Reason Writers at the Movies: Peter Suderman reviews The Sitter
Reason Associate Editor Peter Suderman reviews The Sitter, an R-rated babysitting comedy from stoner filmmaker David Gordon Green, in today's Washington Times:
At just 81 minutes, "The Sitter" is a short movie. It's still too long.
The best you can say about it is that it doesn't aim too high. Given the number of comedies released in recent years about aimless, profane, but basically nice young men, there's little left worth saying about the contemporary slacker contingent. The burgeoning genre — call it the man-child movie — is stuck, much like the young men these movies often feature.
To its (partial) credit, "The Sitter" doesn't even try to say anything interesting or original. Instead, its ambitions are as limited as those of its hero. It wants to be funny, and a little sweet, and maybe just zany enough that you don't forget about it immediately after leaving the theater.
Sadly, it doesn't even live up to its modest ambitions. It's crude but not outrageous, absurd not amusing, bizarre but not memorable. "The Sitter" is a movie that tries far too hard, yet still seems lazy.