![]() And with no real plot or character-driven stakes to hang onto, Ibiza falls apart as instantaneously as any morning-after brunch story. Watching other people do drugs and try to sleep with DJs is not nearly as fun as actually doing so (I suspect). It’s a bizarrely fantastical meet-cute, after which Harper can’t get DJ Leo out of her head, and morosely waits around at a debaucherous mansion after-party, hoping he shows up while her friends get into drug-and-sex-fueled hijinks. (There’s been some light controversy over the film’s decision to shoot in Croatia instead of its Balearic namesake.) Harper and her buddies arrive in Barcelona, get stoned and go to the beach, then head to the club at the invitation of the sangria fellows, where a hot DJ played by Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden plucks Harper out of the audience like something out of a celebrity fanfic. The soundtrack is wall-to-wall with “Mi Gente” and “Despacito” as well as dance-chart toppers from Calvin Harris and his ilk for a film named after a very specific place and music culture, it’s completely devoid of a sense of place. ![]() Nikki is a dentist, Leah is a “freelancer,” they want to go to Spain too, and so off they go. Harper works in PR and is off to Spain to close on an account with a sangria brand, she has a horrible boss (Michaela Watkins), but otherwise we know nothing of how she feels about her job and her life in New York City other than that it’s tiring and the subway is crowded (she has what appears to be a very cushy Dumbo apartment, so brokeness isn’t an issue). We know next to nothing about friends Harper, Leah, and Nikki (Gillian Jacobs, Phoebe Robinson, and Vanessa Bayer, respectively) by the time they jet off to Barcelona five minutes into the movie. With all the inconsequential lightness of a binged sitcom episode but none of the character investment, watching director Alex Richanbach and writer Lauryn Kahn’s girls’ trip comedy feels more like watching a Snapchat story than a movie, a series of jokes and “you had to be there” incidents that fail to ever actually make you feel as if you are, in fact, there. Up until this point, I’ve hesitated to wade into any semantic arguments about whether or not a 90-minute-ish piece of filmed entertainment is a “movie” or not, Ibiza has me suddenly questioning all of it. Ibiza feels like the next logical step in the evolution of the Netflix Original Movie, a film that one can’t imagine possibly being written to be exhibited on any other platform. I’m not even fully confident in calling it a movie. It’s a kind of chin-tucked-down, “ no, honey” kind of faux-aghast deadpan damper, used when a friend is doing something that perhaps does not flatter them, or using a turn of phrase that, to borrow a similar ready-made comic affectation, is “not a thing.” It’s a strangely repetitive tic for a unit of entertainment ostensibly about Yes-and-ing and YOLO-ing your way through Spain, not that Ibiza is apparently interested at all in anything resembling a comedic, emotional, or thematic through line. Lack of opportunities for professional growth (in terms of responsibility and designation) since everybody reports to the CEO in practice.People tell each other “no” a lot in Ibiza. For me, this indicated that the company was vulnerable to a downturn in these products' fortunes and this contributed to job insecurity. Consulting on a couple of Oracle products bring this firm an overwhelming majority of it's business. For someone with a family this can be burdensome. Since this is a consulting firm, weekly travel to client locations occurs frequently. Average wage is lower than the competition. ![]() There is a culture of micromanagement - the CEO often tended to jump right into the middle of a project and ghost-write emails to various stakeholders in the project! Year end evaluations are a farce they very rarely serve to give honest feedback to an employee and instead project what the management thinks of the employee. Coercive employment agreement with an unrealistic notice period. Arbitrary decisions regarding work policies employee policies and procedures keep changing ever so often. The CEO-cum-owner and his wife run this firm - the lack of a professionally-run workplace environment is glaringly felt everyday.
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