Be generous and let them be sad.

André Is An Idiot — 3.5/5

My interest in watching this is exactly matched to my cynicism in watching this. It reeks of San Francisco-based advertising, of which I am of course familiar. André Is A Type Of Guy that feels very familiar to me. And that familiarity is warm and somewhat nostalgic though that part of my life isn't even in the past. (What's a word for a nostalgia that just applies to a wistful version of your present existence?) But also that familiarity is kind of annoying! In the just being reminded of the types of people that I both like and dislike. Imagining working alongside André who is no doubt creative but also probably unnecessarily argumentative and immovable. (I can imagine gently encouraging him to "Just answer the fucking brief.") And then the desire for the movie to be an ad, as if that is necessary to give his life meaning. But also, advertising people dealing with problems with the best tools they have available, a dying man's only path towards building a tower of meaning around his life, to wrap his feeble arms around divine purpose. Though this movie scratches the cynic inside me, that scratch reveals the disappointed idealist who sees himself in André. His death — spoiler: he dies — affected me greatly. My life could be wrapped up little differently, with a few ads and a few good friends (and would that be so bad?). As with 'Dying for Sex,' the movie helps me to see the beauty in dying, in saying goodbye, and though I do not wish it, I hope to, as he did, accept it as generosity, with graciousness. Someday, I will be honored and allowed to grieve for the people I love, and they to grieve for me. "And that is beautiful, or close enough."