The Intern (2000)

Director:

Michael Lange

Writers:

Caroline Doyle (writer)
Jill Kopelman (writer)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A young, underappreciated intern at the ultra-hip magazine Skirt must learn to deal with kissy-face phoniness...

Plot Keywords:

Intern | Editor | Magazine | Business Competition | Fashion Model

Cast

Dominique Swain	...	Jocelyn Bennett
Ben Pullen	...	Paul Rochester
Peggy Lipton	...	Roxanne Rochet
David Deblinger	...	Richard Sinn
Joan Rivers	...	Dolly Bellows
Kathy Griffin	...	Cornelia Crisp
Billy Porter	...	Sebastian Niederfarb
Anna Levine	...	Antoinette De la Paix (as Anna Thompson)
Paulina Porizkova	...	Chi Chi Chemise
James Urbaniak	...	Olivier Di Santo
Leilani Bishop	...	Resin
Tina Casciani	...	Model
Rocco Sisto	...	Pierre La Roux
Anson Scoville	...	Alex
Bill Raymond	...	Deep Throat

Also Known As:

Intern (USA) (new title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Germany:12 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Giv'en Films

Movie Connections:

References Mission: Impossible (1996)

Fashionably Bad

I won't claim that this is the worst movie ever although many would award it at least a honorable mention. I watched this because "Dominique Swain" is one of the stars; she is the only one associated with this thing who has actually been able to find real work in the industry since its release. This was her first real career stumble and she probably wishes now that she had used an assumed name and worn a mask.

Imagine film students Leah and Vincenzo from the cable show "Film School" (The Tisch School of the Acts at NYU) collaborating on a feature length pseudo-documentary as their class project. They talk Swain into going with them to a New York City fashion magazine office for a couple of days. They tell the office staff that everyone has won a free week of acting for the camera lessons. They get another $10,000 from Parker and Jennifer to buy film (Parker's Visa card again). They modify their 1999 script for the unwatchable (and fortunately unwatched) "Fashionably LA" by inserting some scenes from "How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying".

Apparently the objective of the screenplay is to show the "real world" of fashion modeling through the eyes of an intern. The intern is played nicely by Swain who manages to inject some wry humor into many of her scenes and to somehow restrain herself from totally overwhelming the inexperienced cast around her (hence three stars instead of one).

The problem is that the premise, "blowing the lid off the fashion magazine scene", is of interest only to insiders who already know everything the film is about to reveal. Which is pretty much the same with any vocation. What next, a movie that "blows the lid off the Cincinnati CPA scene"?