''Intern'' is a 2000 American
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by
Michael Lange about the shallow world of fashion magazines. It stars
Dominique Swain
Dominique Swain (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress and producer. She came to prominence playing the title character in Adrian Lyne's 1997 film adaptation of ''Lolita'', alongside her supporting role as Jamie Archer in John Woo's ''Fa ...
,
Joan Rivers
Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona—heavi ...
,
Peggy Lipton
Margaret Ann Lipton (August 30, 1946 – May 11, 2019) was an American actress, model, and singer. She made appearances in many of the most popular television shows of the 1960s before she landed her defining role as flower child Julie Barnes i ...
,
Paulina Porizkova and
Kathy Griffin
Kathleen Mary Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television comedy specials and has released comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her reality show '' Kathy ...
. The film features multiple cameo appearances including
Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( /hɪlˈfɪgər/; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.
After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upst ...
,
Kenneth Cole,
Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg (born Diane Simone Michele Halfin, 31 December 1946) is a Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence in 1969 when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, ...
,
Kevyn Aucoin,
André Leon Talley
André Leon Talley (October 16, 1948 – January 18, 2022) was an American fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, and editor-at-large of '' Vogue'' magazine. He was the magazine's fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its first Afr ...
,
Samia Shoaib, and
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (; born ) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Paltrow gained notice for her early work in films ...
.
Caroline Doyle and Jill Kargman, both of whom had stints in fashion journalism at ''
Mademoiselle
Mademoiselle (abbreviated as ''Mlle'' or ''M'') may refer to:
* Mademoiselle (title), the French-language equivalent of the title "miss"
Film and television
* ''Mademoiselle'' (1966 film), a French-British drama directed by Tony Richardson
* '' ...
'', ''
Harper's Bazaar'', and ''
Interview
An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...
'' magazines, wrote the screenplay. The film had its world premiere at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...
on January 21, 2000.
Plot
Jocelyn Bennett is an intern at the fictional
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
magazine, ''Skirt''. Horribly mistreated, overworked, and underpaid, Jocelyn lives for ''Skirt,'' especially the photo spreads. A spy begins to hand over ''Skirt''s spreads and story ideas to its rival glossy, ''
Vogue''. ''Skirt'' magazine finds itself in a bind and some people begin speculating who the infiltrator (everyone refers to the spy as a "yuri") might be. After some fingers begin to point at Jocelyn, she seeks to apprehend the spy and clear her name. Along the way, she meets Paul Rochester, the
British deputy
art director at ''Skirt'', with whom she has much in common. When she finds herself falling in love, one thing stands in her way: Paul's supermodel girlfriend, Resin. Jocelyn continues to search for the spy but several obstacles stand in her way, including Art Director Sebastian Niedarfarb, who believes she is the spy and consistently puts Jocelyn down. However, as she begins to climb the ranks, she begins to stand out to the editors who realize her potential, though they quickly forget it. To make Paul jealous, she starts dating a photo shoot tech named Alex, though the relationship doesn't last. Jocelyn later learns that Resin is only dating Paul because he is related to Prince Charles. Soon after, the spy is apprehended. For her work, Jocelyn is made an assistant, on staff, and finally gets better treatment from her colleagues. During a party thrown by ''Skirt,'' Resin dumps Paul for another model, and Paul and Jocelyn get engaged.Two years later, the happy couple are shown on a PBS tour done by the newest intern at ''Skirt.'' Jocelyn has been made the senior photo editor at the magazine and Paul accomplished his dream of becoming a famous artist. They are set to be married in a few months.
Cast
*
Dominique Swain
Dominique Swain (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress and producer. She came to prominence playing the title character in Adrian Lyne's 1997 film adaptation of ''Lolita'', alongside her supporting role as Jamie Archer in John Woo's ''Fa ...
as Jocelyn Bennett
* Ben Pullen as Paul Rochester
*
Leilani Bishop
Leilani Bishop (born September 11, 1976) is an American model. At 15, she was discovered on Kauai by a model agentbr>Cindy KauanuioJet Set Modelsand subsequently appeared on the covers of ''Flare'' and '' Allure'' magazines, and modeled for cl ...
as Resin
*
Peggy Lipton
Margaret Ann Lipton (August 30, 1946 – May 11, 2019) was an American actress, model, and singer. She made appearances in many of the most popular television shows of the 1960s before she landed her defining role as flower child Julie Barnes i ...
as Roxanne Rochet
*
Paulina Porizkova as Chi Chi Chemise
*
Billy Porter
William Ellis Porter II (born September 21, 1969) is an American actor and singer. Porter gained notice performing on Broadway before starting a solo career as a singer and actor.
Porter won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical fo ...
as Sebastian Niederfarb
*
Kathy Griffin
Kathleen Mary Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television comedy specials and has released comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her reality show '' Kathy ...
as Cornelia Crisp
*
Anna Levine
Anna Thomson is an American actress known professionally as Anna Levine. She was also credited as Anna Levine Thompson and Anna Thomson.
Thomson was orphaned at an early age and raised by her adoptive parents in New York City and France. She trai ...
as Antoinette De la Paix
*
Joan Rivers
Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona—heavi ...
as Dolly Bellows
*
Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( /hɪlˈfɪgər/; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.
After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upst ...
as himself
*
André Leon Talley
André Leon Talley (October 16, 1948 – January 18, 2022) was an American fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, and editor-at-large of '' Vogue'' magazine. He was the magazine's fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its first Afr ...
as himself
*
Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg (born Diane Simone Michele Halfin, 31 December 1946) is a Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence in 1969 when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, ...
as herself
*
Kevyn Aucoin as himself
*
Kenneth Cole as himself
*
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (; born ) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Paltrow gained notice for her early work in films ...
as herself
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 38% based on reviews from 8 critics, with an average rating of 5.7/10.
While some critics praised the dialogue and writing of the film and said it contained a “few entertaining moments", others said it was "a disappointingly flat and familiar look at the glamour industry."
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic.
Biography
Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said, "The biggest mystery about ''Intern'' is how a film about people who are obsessed with appearances could wind up looking so hopelessly drab and tacky."
Stephen MacMillan Moser of ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' said, "''Intern'' isn't a particularly deep movie, but, to paraphrase
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Otto Lagerfeld (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, creative director, artist and photographer.
He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position held from 1983 u ...
, fashion is not the same thing as feeding the hungry and curing the ill."
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Intern, The
2000 films
2000 comedy films
2000 in fashion
2000 independent films
2000s American films
2000s English-language films
2000s satirical films
American comedy films
American satirical films
Films about fashion in the United States
Films directed by Michael Lange
Films set in New York City
Workplace comedy films
Works about fashion magazine publishing