'An Education'

I would've liked to have gotten an education from the "audio commentary" of this 2009 film.  Alas, it was narrated and commented upon by the entirely self-absorbed and almost completely vapid actors themselves--and an only slightly more listenable and aware director. Their fatuous commentary was all about what they "loved" in a scene, as in "I just love this or that" or "I love what I'm wearing in this scene", or when things go bad "this is where I look the absolute oldest."  If they themselves weren't in the scene you'd hear not a single word about any of the other actors, unless something or somebody "just kills me" or it's "I just love it when she does that". Peter Sarsgaard even had to ask what the younger fellow's name was (Matthew Beard), after appearing in a film with him(!) Self-obsession at its most extreme; painful to watch.

God knows what the great Alfred Molina did to all of them, they said not a word about him--except when Mulligan takes the knife out to say "He wraps after this scene".

Most remarkable to me was that the director finds it "ironic" that Sarsgaard's character smokes Bachelor cigarettes, almost as if noticing for the first time. "But maybe that's right for the part," she muses.  The last time Carey Mulligan pulls these cigarettes out of the glove compartment, as she'd done so many times before, but this time we see the brand name is also the moment she discovers Sarsgaard's been married all along. One of those oh-so-smart cinematic moments of great meaning . . and yet . . the director herself apparently had not a clue.