Another film about some no-chin white guy in high school with an absentee father and a laugh-it-off attitude about life to cover his pain with. How much can a teenager drunk-drive before he dies? That's the only genuinely interesting question this film even attempts to answer, but it falls short because I rated this a 4 before waiting for that fatal accident and it didn't come so I bumped this down to a 3. There's no way he can still be alive. This film is cutting it too close to fantasy, except with none of the genre's mystique and allure. Just another white high-school boy who treats everyone like dirt and still breezes through life. How is this same story still being rehashed and fed to us again and again? Who's even paying for the production of this nonsense? Can we, like, stop? Have we really run out of stories to tell? Don't drink and drive, kids, and don't watch this movie. Write your own. We can do better than this.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Very Good Girls
(2013)
Have I seen this before... ?
20 July 2014
Yes, I have. We all have.
Two regurgitated caricatures of the stereotypical American teenage girl, Lily and Gerry are sooooooo different yet so alike. Both fall in love with the same part shady stalker, part brooding troubled artiste~ who wants to travel the world but his list of places to visit is, like, "Rome... (d-uh)Paris..." Daddy issues are, of course, played up wonderfully, because what is any worthy female teenage protagonist if not the product of her father's neglect? What possibly can one expect when the preppy rich teenage daughter of a straight-laced household made up of detached parents and siblings goes to her dad's office to ask him to get through with this patient already they're getting late for dinn- *gasp* and henceforth a series of incredibly stupid decisions are made by two girls we initially assume to be a lot smarter, wittier, braver and mature than they turn out to be. Every trick in the book for a deep and wholesome young-woman-coming-of-age film is not simply used, but abused in the most blatant schticky manner possible; I promise you, there is more than one cameo made by Sylvia Plath.
This film is a true example of lazy filmmaking in an industry where ~gratuitous-yet-modest~ sex scenes and summertime virginity pacts are more important than honest *portrayals* let alone discussions about teenage turmoil and female sexuality. Not even that awkwardly long shot of Dakota Fanning kinda-sorta running-jogging could redeem this movie.
Don't watch it. You've already seen it. And you've seen better.
Two regurgitated caricatures of the stereotypical American teenage girl, Lily and Gerry are sooooooo different yet so alike. Both fall in love with the same part shady stalker, part brooding troubled artiste~ who wants to travel the world but his list of places to visit is, like, "Rome... (d-uh)Paris..." Daddy issues are, of course, played up wonderfully, because what is any worthy female teenage protagonist if not the product of her father's neglect? What possibly can one expect when the preppy rich teenage daughter of a straight-laced household made up of detached parents and siblings goes to her dad's office to ask him to get through with this patient already they're getting late for dinn- *gasp* and henceforth a series of incredibly stupid decisions are made by two girls we initially assume to be a lot smarter, wittier, braver and mature than they turn out to be. Every trick in the book for a deep and wholesome young-woman-coming-of-age film is not simply used, but abused in the most blatant schticky manner possible; I promise you, there is more than one cameo made by Sylvia Plath.
This film is a true example of lazy filmmaking in an industry where ~gratuitous-yet-modest~ sex scenes and summertime virginity pacts are more important than honest *portrayals* let alone discussions about teenage turmoil and female sexuality. Not even that awkwardly long shot of Dakota Fanning kinda-sorta running-jogging could redeem this movie.
Don't watch it. You've already seen it. And you've seen better.
The Kings of Summer
(2013)
men!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9 February 2014
Three gangly white boys with swords find a patch of land and decide to claim it as their own. "This land ... is ours! We make the rules!" exclaims John Smith, and thus follows a 'coming-of-age' story about being MEN!!!! and TOUGH!!!! and MANLY!!!!!! which inevitably requires making loads of jokes about race and gender and growing facial fuzz and stomping around while waving sharp objects and making a mess. I'm sure more happens as well but I didn't finish the film and you shouldn't either.
The cover looked like good design and a good film but the story is atrocious, the lead is insufferable, the dialogue is dorky and I'm only 20 and jaded. 3 points for visuals, no points for fun.
The cover looked like good design and a good film but the story is atrocious, the lead is insufferable, the dialogue is dorky and I'm only 20 and jaded. 3 points for visuals, no points for fun.
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