Tag Archives: Coming of Age

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Review

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Coming of age stories are always a very hard sell for me. They tend to be a bit more dramatic than needed and also make the characters look very whiny. Look, coming of age isn’t particularly hard. Being a kid is fun. Being a teen is fun. And yeah being an adult is fun too. Each part tends to have its high points but as a kid you can still be a high quality character yet these films always portray kids as being the most annoying characters possible. You just shake your head every time they show up.

Margaret is the main character here and the film starts with her family letting her know that they are moving over to New Jersey. Margaret has been a lifetime New yorker and so she isn’t happy about this. To her, NYC is where it’s at but the parents take her along to start the next chapter of her life. The next door neighbor shows up and announces that they can be friends. This girl is really outgoing and Margaret is just glad to have a friend so quickly. This girl has several other friends so all of a sudden Margaret is in a clique. It all feels fun but there is something empty about this life and she also begins to realize that she may be a pat of the bully squad. How can she get out of this?

Another source for drama here is that her father is Jewish and her mother is Christian. Naturally both religions are completely incompatible and she will need to choose one at some point. They made a joint decision not to pressure her one way or the other but the stakes are naturally high. Only one of them can be right after all and the wrong one will be going to hell by the end. Can Margaret really afford to take it slow right now? In a way the parents decision to not pressure her also means it’ll be tough for Margaret to ask either one for help so she is really on her own here.

This one mostly only starts to become a big deal by the climax of the film when the family gets involved and naturally escalates things. You want to say that everyone can just get along but I dare say this is a bigger deal than if your family has opposing politics. Opposing religions is literally a matter of life and death based on the outcomes according to each type. It’s why if you intend to have kids, I would argue you should not marry if you have different beliefs. It will only lead to problems down the line and you also have to consider that it is easier to be dragged down than to bring someone up. So if you marry thinking that you can convert your partner, think again. That is a massive risk no matter how you look at it.

Back to Margaret though, a big problem with her character is how easy it is to cause her to act cruelly towards the other kids. She believes rude rumors about a tall classmate right away and never even stops to think that this could be a lie. So she is hanging out with the bullies and never suspects a thing. She also allows them to convince her to do crazy things and never utilizes her freewill. She is just too desperate to fit in the whole time. It would have been nice if she could have confided in her parents more instead of just hiding things. Her mom in particular tried doing her best to help out but when the secrets are kept, there is only so much that the adults can do. They were basically frozen out.

Margaret is also just a kid so it’s a bit early for her to be thinking about crushes and stuff. The parents definitely needed to make sure games like spin the bottle and the closet of doom weren’t being played. Fortunately those are games that don’t really get played as much nowadays. I like to think most people have seen the problems with them but even for back in the day it’s crazy to think those things were happening. I would view the film in general as a good cautionary tale to be careful who you hang out with.

Everyone thinks they can be the exception but if you hang out with troublemakers then you will probably become one yourself. You’ll just learn too many bad mentalities and habits over time. It’s why it was hard to even root for Margaret the whole time since you kept seeing her on the wrong side. Also the film’s idea of what the kids would talk about tended to be more on the annoying side. It’s not that the writing was bad per say. It might even be slightly realistic although I have my doubts. It’s just that the script is not engaging as a result so the pacing really drags on.

I’d say the only main character who was holding it together the whole time was the teacher. He was trying to be funny and help everyone out as much as he could. I would have said the mother too since I mainly enjoyed her character but she did allow herself to be used a bit too easily at the school. I was glad she got past that though. The grandparents on the father’s side felt very manipulative so they get a thumbs down. The grandmother on the mom’s side was perhaps a bit aggressive but I cut her more slack since she was there the whole time and had a great relationship with Margaret. So she earned more credit in advance. The father was decently solid too for most of the film, I was glad that he didn’t make a fuss about there being no furniture and just made himself comfortable anyway. It’s always good to be easygoing and just let the chips fall where they may. Unfortunately he crashes by the end of the film for having crazy magazines in the house, I thought Margaret was bluffing the whole time to fit in so I was shocked when she actually found them. Yeah that was a terrible look for the guy, he doesn’t seem to be living the most moral of lives.

Overall, This film definitely wasn’t up my alley. It’s just not all that interesting and often times when characters are written to be “super realistic” they tend to just be unlikable the whole time. This film badly needed better characters and maybe even more of a plot aside from the whole themes of growing up. That’s just not enough for a whole film and you still need something really interesting to catch your attention.

Overall 4/10

Real Genius review

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When you’re a genius there are a few things you really have to keep in mind. There are those who would try to use your skills for their own personal gain and additionally you have to be careful not to burn out. Go in too hard and that’ll be it for you. The main character has to end up learning this the hard way. It’s an entertaining film and while it has a few weak points that keep it from getting to the next level, I would still be able to recommend this one.

The movie starts with the government telling Jerry that they need the laser which can blow someone up from any distance. Jerry was confident that his star student Chris would be able to build this but the guy has been slacking off a whole lot lately. At this point the deadline is getting real close so instead he decides to take in a new kid named Mitch to take over the project. Perhaps now he will get results. Mitch is eager to help and knows Chris as a living legend but at the same time he’s not thrilled with how the guy is always slacking off. It’s not quite the experience that he was expecting, that’s for sure. He doesn’t realize the true stakes behind what he is building either and is just eager to pull it off. We’ll see how that goes.

Right off the bat I do like the government angle. The whole building a laser thing makes a lot of sense and led to a fun intro scene. They were also quite ruthless here as it’s heavily implied that they decided to take out the one guy who disagreed with the plan. It’s safe to say at such a high level that you should be careful about stepping off of a project. Doing that now makes you a big security risk since you know about the secrets. These guys did not hesitate either considering that they probably knew him for a while.

Unfortunately the government really doesn’t get to appear much after that until the very end of the film. It’s a shame because they were definitely one of the highlights here. Jerry does well representing the shady characters though. He is good at manipulating Mitch and also talks back to the government at times. Naturally they do have most of the power here but he still doesn’t let them just walk all over him. He manages to stand up for himself as needed. He is certainly a ruthless villain since he doesn’t care about anything aside from his paycheck at the end.

The movie handles him really well though. He’s not just cackling in the corner or anything like that. He still seems reasonable on the surface and you almost think he’ll be a main hero at first. Once he started showing his true colors that was it though. The first hinting of this was likely when we found out that he wasted a whole lot of the money for the project on random things he wanted. Not the most responsible guy eh?

Chris is fun but I do think he could go a little far at times in how he would mess around. I get that he didn’t want to take things too seriously so he wouldn’t crack and that makes sense but after a point that just felt like an excuse. There’s a difference between not overworking yourself and still doing some basic work. As the film goes on he eventually learns more about that but in the meantime I can absolutely see why everyone was so fed up with him. The guy wouldn’t just goof off but actively disrupted and distracted everyone else. I would say it’s clear that he was still the smartest guy in the classroom but he really didn’t use those talents to help anyone.

In a way he would almost feel like an antagonist at times if it didn’t turn out that the invention was evil. As for Mitch, he’s a decent main character but he could be a little timid the whole time. It made it real easy for other kids to show up and start teasing him. You gotta be bold and just go with the flow or things are going to get tough in a school like this. He also gets a quick romance plot in the film but I wouldn’t say it was anything all that special. It does happen rather quickly and didn’t seem all that realistic. I’m glad he was able to turn someone else down in the meantime who was after him even if his reaction times were slow but I wouldn’t say it was enough to get me on board with the romance.

Maybe once Mitch had been there for a few semesters or something but until then it’s just a smidge too fast. Then you have the main villain Kent. I mean, in a way Jerry’s the main villain but the difference is that Kent was acting like a villain from the start. At least Jerry puts up a front but Kent doesn’t bother with one. He just openly attacks Chris and messes with his things. In particular one of his sabotage moments was really a big deal with how he ruined a really expensive gadget that cost time and money. I thought he got off really easy all things considered.

The main heroine Jordan got her role in all of this as well. She has a hard time ever sleeping so she is hyper 24/7. The film didn’t give her a ton of time but I thought that she was a nice character. Jordan really stuck out right off the top with a quirk that was memorable without being too annoying. If this film got a sequel I could see her doing a lot more there.

I still say that the government should have appeared more though. The slice of life scenes with the kids at school is still good and all but the government scenes would have really pushed it over the edge. That’s absolutely what would have been the best route here. The only scene I thought was a little unrealistic was when Kent records Mitch so everyone can make fun of him at lunch.

They’re all geniuses and recording isn’t difficult so I’m not saying that this was hard to believe, but that the school wouldn’t get back at him somehow. Ultimately they still want more students in the future so it seems a little counterintuitive to let the bullying go this far. If the school gets sued or something then it will discourage attendance. It’s hardly the worst bullying I’ve seen in a film but it really stood out here. Maybe because it’s just so open while a lot of times the bullying is at least done in the shadows. A valid argument could be made that nobody could prove it was Kent, but it seems like nobody really even cared.

Overall, Real Genius is a good movie. The romance can be a bit cheesy at times but ultimately it’s not a big part of the experience anyway. The writing here was good and I do always like the idea of a school for geniuses. There’s a whole lot you can do with a solid setup like that. This film perhaps didn’t capitalize on it to the fullest extent but we did have some fun inventions and quirks in the first half. I liked the instant ice for example and the heroes had a good solution for the laser at the end. I’d recommend checking it out for some light hearted fun.

Overall 6/10