Terri (Hilary Duff)'s new roommate is Denise (Dana Davis), who plans to work hard for a scholarship, and resents [Duff] as a distraction. Sizing up Terri's wardrobe and her smile, she tells her: 'You're like some kind of retro Brady Buncher.' I hate it when a movie contains its own review.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Ebert dislikes when characters within a movie explicitly critique the protagonist or the film's tropes.
- In plain terms
- I hate when a movie makes fun of itself in the dialogue.
- What can you take from it?
- Meta-commentary can feel like a lazy way to review your own movie.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When is self-referential humor successful?
- Does a movie ever need to review itself?
Another view
Some meta-commentary can actually be clever and self-aware.
More from Roger Ebert
There is a word for this movie, and that word is: Ick.
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