i'd feel bad for Max if guys like him weren't a dime a dozen. trust fund scumbag with equally shitty friends, they make great stories and are flamboyant enough to be neat characters. its been like this for over a century, they're the reason the roaring 20s roared. And people's disgust with them is why Less than Zero sold so well, back in the early 80s.
Max has been given way too many chances and failed for any of us to care. he's in a weird spot, if he actually wrote good films he might have been able to weather this crisis or more people would feel bad about what happened to him (even Whedon still has fans) and if he never got a shot and was another wannabe people here would feel less sad but he'd make a minor lolcow thread and he'd be way more "popular" as in more people would know and have a take on him.
he made one good film and 6 shit ones, he wouldn't have gotten those 6 extra shots if he wasn't his father's son, and to prove that look at how everyone else from chronicle are probably driving for uber now after their first couple bombs.
Max has tons of cool loglines, but anyone can come up with those. he's an idea man but he's terrible on the execution. its why his 2nd best film is one so heavily rewritten by the director she got a credit for it.
yeah dating is fucked for you Max, but if we're being honest and max wasn't canceled it wouldn't have been that much better. you're just saving women from another shitty first or second date.
Max is doing a societal version of California sober, he wants the healthy living asspats but still wants to indulge. He clearly believed he could just have this blow over like tons of PR people said would happen. honestly Johnny Depp had the right idea, blow it all up. it might fuck up everything but your soul will still feel good. At the very least you'd feel good inside again. it wouldn't seem so out of your hands and lead you to ranting online. Its that Taking the power back moment they talk about with abuse victims.
Also Max needs to learn to live with his narcissism. its hurting him overall, "ill be just as bad as them" yeah, you really think most people consider them worse than you?
Max accidentally admitted that going full chaos would improve his social standing, honestly it makes him seem more guilty that he isn't exposing everything to everyone. it clearly forces the implication that he's still scared, the ammo used against him was just some probing attacks, it wasn't the full assault.
Max also needs to learn that people will put up with a lot more if A.you're nice and B. you're good at your job. Patrice O'Neal was a child molester as well as being an over weight black man, in 90s boston. and yet he still managed to become beloved and given chances out the ass by just having a great personalty and being good at his job. Reputation and image can change if you work hard at it and have a bit of a soul. On the flip side if you remain a shitty enough person long enough, your lolcow bullshit never goes away and people will know of you even if they have no reason to. just like Ethan Ralph or Chris chan.
I'm sure if Max groveled and tried he could easily get some shitty writers room job on some tv show, even an obnoxiously low budget one, and could build his way back up. He won't, but if he actually could cash the checks his ego kept making pre-canceling he would and could do it.
