Only losers get 97 frickin’ percent!
Year Released: 2017
Director: Kyle Rideout
Cast: Daniel Doheny, Judy Greer, Siobhan Williams, Grace Park and Andrea Bang
So I’m coming to the end of my time off following surgery and whilst looking for a film to watch (I wasn’t in the mood for anything off of the Youtube list) I found the trailer for this on Youtube. It looks at least somewhat interesting, but the IMDB score made it look distinctively average.
I don’t normally take a lot of stock from IMDB scores, but the movie doesn’t look like it offers a lot of variety from other films from the genre.
Then again, I could be wrong.
Plot
Liam (Doheny) has been home-schooled by his overkeen mother Claire (Greer) and he heads into his high school equivalency exam full of confidence. He hopes to go to Cambridge and learn under Stephen Hawking, but as soon as he finishes he sees a girl (Williams) attaching her prosthetic leg and falls in love. He immediately goes back into the exam and changes all of his answers, forcing failure. Claire does not react well when she sees that he fails.
Claire eventually agrees for him to go into high school and give him some independence. He is replacing a student called Maria and takes her place in all of her activities, including dancing and various science experiments.
Will it prove worth it?
So is it good, or just unnecessarily similar to other films?
There are many ways I could use to describe this film, but the one I am going to go with is one that I don’t believe that I have used on this site before, and this film is overly “hipsterish”. By that I mean that is it almost trying to be odd and unique for the sake of it, rather than having anything of substance. Films that try to be odd for the sake of being odd, are often dull and predictable.
Unfortunately, the characters aren’t that believable or interesting, and the relationship between Claire and Liam just isn’t enjoyable to watch because of how ridiculous it is. There is a scene near the beginning of the movie where she throws him a prom and the two share several awkward dances, but I refuse to believe that any parent would not allow their children to make friends that aren’t members of the family in what is a seemingly normal American town. Maybe it is because I am English and home-schooling isn’t really a thing in the UK, but yeah, the situation does not feel believable at all.
The camera work is also very odd, with characters having conversations with each when one is only half on the screen, or the characters just stood clearly over to one side, leaving most of the screen completely empty, and it is just off-putting and distracting.
Summary
A film that is trying to be odd for the sake of being odd, but actually doesn’t have any substance. The characters aren’t particularly likeable and the dynamic between the mother and son just isn’t believable.
There isn’t anything, other than the camera work, that I hated, but it is safe to say that there isn’t anything I overly liked either, and I can’t think of any reason to recommend it.
Avoid it.
Sorry, never heard of it! 