The Avocado Movie Club #48: The Intern (2015)

Welcome to the Movie Club! Today’s movie is Nancy Meyer’s comedy drama The Intern!

Alternate poster

The Intern stars Robert De Niro as Benjamin Whittaker, an elderly man looking for something to fill his days after his wife passes away. He responds to an ad for a “Senior Intern” at a startup, and finds himself working for Jules Ostin, played by Anne Hathaway, a young and successful CEO. Together they form a surprising friendship and find out they can both learn from each other.

 

The Intern was filmed on a budget of $40 million, and first premiered, apparently on the same day, in both Belgium at the Film Festival Oostende AND the Wine Country Film Festival in the US on September 21, 2015, before having a wide release internationally, staggered between the 24th and 25th of September. It received only mixed reviews from critics, earning only a 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it was a box office success, making $197,115,710 worldwide.

 

Trivia

  • Surprisingly, one of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite movies of 2015.
  • At one point, Robert De Niro’s character claims to not know who Jay Z is, which is apparently a reference to a beef between Jay Z and Robert De Niro that lasted from 2012-2016.
  • Nancy Meyers references her own movie, The Parent Trap, in the scene where Jules goes with Ben to pick up coffee. Two of the coffee cups have the names “Annie” and “Hallie” on them, which are both the names of the leads in The Parent Trap and Meyer’s own daughters.

Up Next: Our next movie will be Justine Triet’s legal drama Anatomy of a Fall! We’ll meet to discuss it on May 22 at 12PM EST. Check out the trailer and where it’s playing below:

USA

  • Stream: kanopy (free), Netflix
  • Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, Spectrum (Rental only), Google Play, YouTube, Fandango At Home

Canada

  • Stream: Crave (Thank you to KingKat for this correction)
  • Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, Cosmo GO

UK

  • Stream: Rakuten TV
  • Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, BFI Player (Rental only), Google Play, YouTube, Rakuten TV, Sky Store, Curzon (Rental only)