Maybe I’m just having a bitch fit, or maybe Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s new movie The Internship — which hits theaters Friday — is an hour-and-a-half misrepresentation of the blood, sweat, and tears of pretty much every college graduate in the world right now. I’m all for silly movies and internships are so widespread that maybe they were ripe for satirization, but the film seems to downplay the stress that every driven 20-25 feels or has felt while trying to make it as a professional. And, gosh darn it, I’m pissed.
In all fairness, I have only seen the trailer, so perhaps The Internship — in which two unemployed schlubs land an internship at Google — will surprise me with emotional depth and clarity of vision. But what the advertising behind the film intimates is that any old fogey without prior experience can just roll into Google. Anyone who has heard of the Internet knows that not to be the case. Brand-name internships offer well-organized programs and they bump up a resumé like nothing else, but the selection process is rigorous. As much as companies like Google might want a varied selection of talent, it’s insulting to insinuate that such a selection includes people that have literally no reason to be there other than needing a job.
The Internship trailer makes the film seem like Wedding Crashers Rebooted, but as far as I know, no professional wedding crashers were personally offended by how their position was portrayed in that movie. Nary a, “Hey, THAT’S not how we lure women into bed, the nerve of some people” was heard in the weeks following the premiere. Let it be said though, that I don’t know many wedding crashers, if any at all.
Could be that this movie strikes a sore spot (I think I’ve communicated with every company in New York City in the last year and a half), but I think it's more that The Internship makes interning look ridiculous. Even easy. I'm part of a generation that is scrambling for jobs like rats scrambling for leftovers, so please, stop making fun of the hoops we have to jump through to get employed. It’s bad enough that we have to get you people coffee all the damn time.
Image: 20th Century Fox
