The Art of Getting By With Movie Reviews

So in addition to all my writing, I am also involved with some film stuff at my school.

That has nothing to do with this review.

In today's winter break boredom, my sister decided to get three movies out of the Red Box . Three because apparently they give you 50 cents off for a third and she could not resist. One of the movies she got was “The Art of Getting By,” starring Freddy Highmore and Emma Roberts.

I saw a preview of this movie when it first came out in theaters and thought it looked good, but I didn’t have high expectations going into it. I figured it would be a cute teen romance with an indie feel ala “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.”

Here’s a quick rundown of my thoughts on the movie:

Soundtrack

A-    It had the type of mellow, indie rock music I like and  it fit the story well.

Plot

Although there is a general conflict of George almost not graduating and really struggling to feel motivation in life, there isn’t much of an actual plot.  This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think the romantic tension between George and the love-interest Sally could have had more sparks. But it was a good character-driven movie.

angsty Freddy Highmore

Characters

Although my first impression of George was “wow, he’s emo,” his character had enough nuances to keep it from being cliché. Sure, him being a artist when he really didn’t seem to have much interest in it (or anything) was a little meh, but it would have been worse if the character was some poet or singer. Sally was definitely had MPDG syndrome, but was still likeable. Dustin is somewhat laughable, but also has moments where you feel for him. The preachy/inspirational(?) principal gets annoying quick and the whole step-dad plot is a little WTF, but it doesn’t detract from the movie that much.

Overall

Concept-wise it was underwhelming, but the acting is good and it’s a solid 50-cents-off-third-choice.


Alternatively, if you would like a more humorous review, I found this while Tumblog searching for the above pics.


Lots of lulz.