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Definitely one of the biggest surprises of the year


I absolutely LOVED this movie. Thought it was one of the most realistic portrayals of high school life ever captured on film. John C. Reilly is great as usual, and Jacob Wysocki is wonderful as Terri. Definitely a movie worth seeing in the theater if you get a chance.

Twitter-> www.twitter.com/joey123mo
You just pissed on a gypsy in the middle of *beep* nowhere.

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Very pleasant surprise, and some good acting by the young cast.

8/10



When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

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Absolutely agree. By far one of the best ive seen all year. Can't wait to see it again !

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Totally disagre with all of you. I posted this elsewhere, but I'll repost part of it here:

The story was at its best during the scenes with John C. Reilly. It was only then that the film felt as though it had any direction to it. The rest just felt meandering and somewhat pointless. Moreover, I don't think the film did the best job of making the viewer sympathize and root for Terri

For example, during the scene where the bird was eating the dead mice that Terri left for him/her, Terri just sat there with this ridiculous, opened-mouth face that made me want to yell to him to shut it.

And I was getting annoyed with the fact that ALL Terri wore the entire movie was pajamas. Had he actually thrown on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt by the end I might have been able to better understand the symbolic force of it. But no, he just stays in his PJs, looking ridiculous.

And his high school crush. I was excited at the prospect that maybe he'd end up having some meaningful, close relationship with her. In the end she just turned out to be some chick that likes to drink and pop pills. Lame. And then Terri cries like a baby when she takes her shirt off. I understand the kid felt like an outcast and was in need of some real human connection (the kind of got out of his relationship with John C. Reilly's character) but the back story didn't make the reason that Terri cried like a fool when she took her shirt off entirely obvious.

Does anyone else agree that Terri sort of came off as a mindless idiot?

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^Yes, totally agree.

I thought I would relate to Terri since I was NOT popular during high school and hated every minute of it. Nope.
I wish I could see what everyone loved about this movie. I just don't get it. I was ready for it to end before it was even half over. By the end, I was in agony. What are we supposed to take from this? How are we supposed to feel?
I feel kind of depressed, confused and pissed that I wasted 2 hours of my life watching Terri. Could someone please buy the kid some fracking jeans and tshirt? seriously? I would have been happy if at least THAT had happened.
John C. Reilly saved this from total disaster...I utterly love him in everything. Very unsatisfying film overall.

Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here.

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Boy, from the looks of this board, Terri could use a champion or two.

I found this film utterly refreshing. It shirked the whole cutesy, oddball, Wes Anderson/Napoleon Dynamite zeitgeist in favour of something a bit more real. (I'm very fond of Rushmore incidentally; less fond of the immitators in its wake.)

Parts of it are odd, and there are moments that might be called "cute", but I think some people are talking trash about Terri because it has a genuine high school feel. And high school is an uncomfortable time for many people. If we're going to spend an hour and a half vicariously re-living some of the most awkward moments of our collective youth, there'd better be a cherry on top, right? Something to sweeten things up at the end? A la Revenge of the Nerds? Or at the very least, a clear point or message.

Terri doesn't suddenly show up in gangsta threads and make well adjusted conversation because he's learned to be comfortable in his own skin and can now impart this lesson to the student body while acquiring a hot girlfriend because they see each other's true inner beauty -- oh, and his uncle's cured.

If you're an outcast now, there's a good chance you're going to remain one. I feel as though Terri is learning to make the best of it by the end, in a way that's both plausible and encouraging.

And the characters managed to walk that fine line between being memorable and being recognizable from our own lives.

I could've easily watched another hour of this film. In fact, I kept thinking, "If this were a TV show, I'd watch it every week."

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