Theatrical Spoiler Alert (2022)

[Jason_V]

Title: Spoiler Alert (2022)

Tagline: Love never stops surprising you. Even when you know how it ends.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, Sally Field, Bill Irwin, Josh Pais, Antoni Porowski, Nikki M. James, Jeffery Self, Tara Summers, Winslow Bright, Allegra Heart, Sadie Scott, Scott Burik, Supriya Ganesh, Eleni Yiovas, Shunori Ramanathan, Kate Pittard, Paco Lozano, Christine Renee Miller, Erica Cho, Brody Caines

Release: 2022-12-02

Runtime: 110

Plot: Journalist Michael Ausiello embarks on a rollercoaster ride of emotions when Kit Cowan, his partner of 14 years, is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

All I knew about Spoiler Alert before the movie started was: (1) Michael Ausiello; and (2) some vague bad thing happening to the leads.

That "bad thing" is literally the first scene of the movie, and I'd imagine in the trailers and other promo material.

As much as I "enjoyed" Bros earlier this year for different reasons, Spoiler Alert is a much better film in just about every way. It's more nuanced, down to earth, grounded...better written, much better acting. Jim Parsons is a hard actor to distinguish in other roles away from Sheldon Cooper, but he does a reasonably good job here doing that. The rest of the cast is more than up to the challenge of the material. In my 7:15 preview night showing, the theater was about half full and there a lot of sniffles in the second half of the movie. In that respect, it hit people in the feels.

Away from the movie, I listened to Ausiello when he was on the TV Guide podcast years ago (probably around the time some of this movie actually took place). I also was a devout follower of TV Line for a long time...and I never knew any of this was happening.

 

[Matt Hough]

The book is a devastating read. It took me days longer than normal to read it because I would regularly have to put it down and not go back to it for a few days because it was so sad.

 

[Wayne_j]

I had no idea that this movie was about Michael Ausiello, no wonder they named it Spoiler Alert.

 

[Jason_V]

The book is a devastating read. It took me days longer than normal to read it because I would regularly have to put it down and not go back to it for a few days because it was so sad.

The wild thing about the movie is I should have been BAWLING my eyes out. It hit most, if not all, of my triggers to get the waterworks going. I think this is more of a symptom of my current mental well-being than the movie itself. I was, however, completely perplexed why it wasn't hitting me the way I know it should have.

I may find the book, but I need to make sure I'm in a half-decent mental place first. Or I'm in a place to have a complete and utter meltdown, if necessary.