A good movie

Since this movie had a pretty good reputation (above all Roger Ebert was really enthusiastic about it), I was really eager to check it out. As usual with Todd Solondz, it was a rather realistic dark tale with some pitch black humor and we were far from all the glitter and glamour displayed in your usual Hollywood high-school comedy. And that was definitely the main quality in this movie, the fact that even the popular kids didn’t look like top models and, above all, it displayed how high-school (and, in this case, Junior High) is pretty much a long succession of embarrassing moments and, basically, for the average kid, you feel miserable most of the time. So, all the details, the dialogs, the look, the characters were really spot on but, still, somehow, I wasn’t quite blown away by the whole thing. I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t in the right mood but I had a rather hard time to care about the main character and what she was going through. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I thought that the whole thing was more sad and depressing than actually funny. Anyway, to conclude, it is pretty much one of the most realistic high-school movies ever made and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Solondz’ work.

7/10