Enjoyed it for what it was which was a standard coming of age film wrapped in a quirky vehicle for comedic ad libbing by the likes of Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Eugene Cordero, etc. who do a fantastic and hysterical job (although I did find Offerman's character to be a little too much of an angry ass to allow myself to completely appreciate the clear humorous one liners in his seething bitter attitude toward everything). But the movie is a strange mix. Its both a platform for this kind of free form comedic prowess by some talented comedians and a standard coming of age drama (yes very much a drama in a teen sense) for the main teenage characters who kind of exist in their own little teen soap opera bubble within the body of the film. So you are forced to follow along with the main story of the teens finding themselves, working out their relationships with each other and figuring out whats important in life in very tender and often dramatic ways while this kind of alternative parallel universe whirls around them that's very often funny and almost always distracting and hard to weave in with the main story. It was just a weird mix for me. I guess the film makers were trying to present their worlds in a way that allows us to see how they see it and so they present their parents and the police and society at large as farcical, ludicrous, and almost surreal so we can relate to their plight more. Maybe? So you end up with a world where you have no 'straight man' adults but rather a bunch of bizarre and/or clownish characters that are thoroughly entertaining (the cops are great and the scene where Mullally is going off on them about the Irish being the 'blacks of Europe' was hysterical). There's something to that approach that I appreciate but I found that I wasn't able to stir the weird oil/water mixture of comedic muscle-flexing by some very talented comedians with a teen soap opera by teen actors who don't/cant follow that pattern at all. Oh but with one exception
Dear wonderful Biaggio
Biaggio is my favorite character in this movie and the best character I've seen in a movie in I don't know how many years and thank god for him. I would have appreciated this movie much less without his completely alien bizarre wackiness to balance the other kids (especially Joe) and keep it from becoming some kind of terrible "90210 in the woods" teen garbage puke with no soul and no magic. At first he just seems like a silly annoying throw away weirdo character not worth investing in (which is exactly what the main characters think of him) but as he develops and becomes one of the main characters you embrace him completely just as they do until you are hanging on his every word and action waiting for him to floor you with some other truly wonderful quirky comment or weird look. I couldn't get enough of Biaggio. I would pay money to see a movie where Biaggio is the main character despite the fact that I would know going in that movie would surely suck because he cant be the focus of a story without completely altering his role. But I would go anyway
However, I digress
I enjoyed the movie but in the end I found it lacking a real message. Is it about the parents (and therefore the world) coming around to understand how their kids think so they can relate to them better and not be lunatics like they were before and not try to control them so much? Because losing them made them realize how much they need them around and that their kids are capable of living independently and surviving? Im not sure that works. Is it that teen relationship drama isn't that important in the end and buds are buds? I didn't think they presented the resolution between Joe and Patrick well. And to try to have Kelly be the mediator when she was the cause of the whole thing didn't work for me. That scene where they flip each other off from their cars then both smile is that supposed to smooth everything and make everything better? Is that supposed to be a resolution or are they just saying The resolution is No resolution? Maybe that's a little too indie for me I feel like Patrick was an ass and that Joe was enormously over reactive and angry in his response (like his father?) and I found myself losing some respect for both characters because of the way that conflict unfolded. But I have a feeling someone will say Im not getting it and Im probably not.
A few plot inconsistencies bothered me too. Patrick goes home and they don't grill him about where Joe is? What?? Also, for the love of god if you are going to have a scene where someone gets dramatically bitten by a "poisonous" snake make sure that snake at least looks like a copper head or a rattle snake or something and not CLEARLY AND OBVIOUSLY like a gopher or a garter snake! Oh my god that was terrible What is this a middle school play where someone shakes a rope and we just assume it's a snake?
But overall worth watching despite being somewhat uncategorizable (which is certainly no crime if you can pull it off). Its heart is a drama but its body is a comedy. Yet its not a dramedy. In essence this is a teen drama with a comedy oozing all over it (flowing around it?). Not sure if that works necessarily but it was a fun attempt to watch.
Biaggio is my favorite character in this movie and the best character I've seen in a movie in I don't know how many years and thank god for him. I would have appreciated this movie much less without his completely alien bizarre wackiness to balance the other kids (especially Joe) and keep it from becoming some kind of terrible "90210 in the woods" teen garbage puke with no soul and no magic. At first he just seems like a silly annoying throw away weirdo character not worth investing in (which is exactly what the main characters think of him) but as he develops and becomes one of the main characters you embrace him completely just as they do until you are hanging on his every word and action waiting for him to floor you with some other truly wonderful quirky comment or weird look. I couldn't get enough of Biaggio. I would pay money to see a movie where Biaggio is the main character despite the fact that I would know going in that movie would surely suck because he cant be the focus of a story without completely altering his role. But I would go anyway
However, I digress
I enjoyed the movie but in the end I found it lacking a real message. Is it about the parents (and therefore the world) coming around to understand how their kids think so they can relate to them better and not be lunatics like they were before and not try to control them so much? Because losing them made them realize how much they need them around and that their kids are capable of living independently and surviving? Im not sure that works. Is it that teen relationship drama isn't that important in the end and buds are buds? I didn't think they presented the resolution between Joe and Patrick well. And to try to have Kelly be the mediator when she was the cause of the whole thing didn't work for me. That scene where they flip each other off from their cars then both smile is that supposed to smooth everything and make everything better? Is that supposed to be a resolution or are they just saying The resolution is No resolution? Maybe that's a little too indie for me I feel like Patrick was an ass and that Joe was enormously over reactive and angry in his response (like his father?) and I found myself losing some respect for both characters because of the way that conflict unfolded. But I have a feeling someone will say Im not getting it and Im probably not.
A few plot inconsistencies bothered me too. Patrick goes home and they don't grill him about where Joe is? What?? Also, for the love of god if you are going to have a scene where someone gets dramatically bitten by a "poisonous" snake make sure that snake at least looks like a copper head or a rattle snake or something and not CLEARLY AND OBVIOUSLY like a gopher or a garter snake! Oh my god that was terrible What is this a middle school play where someone shakes a rope and we just assume it's a snake?
But overall worth watching despite being somewhat uncategorizable (which is certainly no crime if you can pull it off). Its heart is a drama but its body is a comedy. Yet its not a dramedy. In essence this is a teen drama with a comedy oozing all over it (flowing around it?). Not sure if that works necessarily but it was a fun attempt to watch.