The Fault in Our Stars:
Exactly how I thought it was going to be, which is a good thing. Right along with Perks of Being a Wallflower and Spectacular Now as far movies aimed for that demographic that deals with tough issues fairly well. I will fully admit, I cried. Thinking about what I would do if my son was in similar situations. 7/10
That said, not exactly sure what I am looking for, but are there any movies about teens that don't suffer from Juno syndrome where all the kids are well read and constantly dropping witty one-liners?
Clueless. I think the whole plot of Clueless was how not well-read their main characters were. Verbal and sometimes witty, yes. Well-read, no.
I think that's a recent development. Often, teen movies and their protagonists were not particularly well-read. That's become very much an aughts and beyond thing, IMO.
eta* Debating watching the documentary about the MOVE thing in Philly due to your review and then checking it out. So if anybody wonders whether people read these reviews and then considers them accordingly, that's a yes.
I think so too. Maybe "well read" isn't the correct descriptor. Just seems like the trend in the recent movies is all the teens are super cool, watch all the cool old movies, have great comebacks, etc.. I am starting to miss the Anthony Micheal Hall days.
Glad to read the last part of the post. I don't say it enough in here how much I appreciate this thread and come here for other's thoughts and suggestions. Even if it's to see what Andy liked recently so I know what to stay away from.
Cool. I agree about the Anthony Michael Hall bit.
I did see the
Let The Fire Burn movie about the Philadelphia group MOVE, and I'd highly recommend it. The political questions it raised made it about a 9/10 for me. Solid documentary. Very emotional, very gripping. There are a lot of questions raised that I'm personally interested in, so that might have made it even better. Questions of self-determination, property rights both private and public, the amount of tolerable dissent allowable in a functioning society, policing tactics, race issues, and proper parenting were all raised. Just sort of unbelievable. If I could figure out how to do the spoiler function, I'd explain it in more detail, but coming from my own political point of view, I find questions of autonomy and self-determination juxtaposed against community standards very interesting.
I also saw two other movies recently. One was the
No No: A Dockumentary. I wanted to love this, but I already knew most of the story. I was a baseball devotee in the late 90's and early aughts, and by then, most people that were very into baseball knew Dock's story and the obvious racial dynamic that went along with the Pirates in the 70's. It has a 100% rating at RT, so I'll step aside and not let my own personal knowledge get in the way of rating the film. It was good, and if you're a casual baseball fan, or you want to see how loose sports was in the 70's (before it become such a dang serious business where players are basically their own corporate entities, complete with PR that befits a large corporation) then see this. It's interesting.
Third, and last, I saw
The Color Wheel, an indie flick about a cantankerous brother and sister sibling pairing who meet up to help the sister move out her boyfriend's apartment. It's got funny and witty dialogue throughout. It's painful. They're both awkward and quirky and ironic. Anything else I say about the film will be a spoiler. Things get thematically weird about twenty minutes in, and stay that way. I would recommend not reading any reviews and just watching it. I'd give it a 7.5/10, just for the humor involved in a lot of the scenes. Not a family film, so proceed with caution. And not recommended for children at all. But strong dialogue, and strong themes.
for the movie- I'll definitely keep an eye out for it... is it in theaters or on video?
