Blah. This movie can be summed up with that simple word. It attempts to convey the nature of teenage angst combined with fighting a bureaucracy and tossing in the underprivileged youths trying to assimilate. The problem is that the muddled malaise that the movie tries to convey winds up engulfing the story and the characters themselves.
This movie won awards from SXSW, and it has a good rating on IMDB, so why did I just not get into it? I mean, the performance that Brie Larson gives is pretty good, and the supporting characters are generally done very well. The story should be fairly compelling - with a girl who is managing a intermediary home for homeless or troubled kids has to deal with a particularly hard case while she is also dealing with her own pregnancy.
So, the story is a good start and the acting is good, so where does it all go wrong? Well, the dialogue was crap. Characters are thrust into situations where they have to relate to each other, and it is always awkward. Things aren't helped by the direction or editing, though. They toss you from a scene of extreme introspection to a scene with kids being jerks to each other, and we are supposed to just take what we are given. Well, it doesn't work for me; the seriousness of one is countered by the irrelevantness of the other.
Life is not helped by the cinematography, either. I yearn for the days of solid camerawork and steady cameras. Why does everything have to look like it was shot on a cell phone these days? Well, the dark, depressing feel of the movie is doubled up on with the crappy lighting and unstable, poorly handled camera.
Character development is not in the cards for this movie, as every character is a two-dimensional caricature of their own insecurities. From the African-American teen who resents the fact that he'll have to leave the system when he's 18 to the privileged 13-year-old girl who hates herself and her father and lashes out at the world but is really a good girl inside who only needs someone to care for her as much as the girl who is in charge of this house will, these characters just aren't a challenge or even all that interesting.
Direction was bad
Acting was good
Cinematography was bad
Wardrobe was good
Dialogue was bad
1.25/5