This was an absolutely, as someone else before said, textbook angsty coming of age movie. The thing is I usually really like a good independent coming of age movie. But this was terrible. I struggled through this movie every step of the way. In fact, half-way through the movie, I had to stop, go to scene selections, and pick the last chapter of the movie to browse it to see if the movie got interesting. It looked like it did although was pretty sure they were going to find a way to make it underwhelming anyway, which they did.
I have a lot of problems with this movie. The beginning is one. After watching the whole thing, I can say with confidence that they threw in that gun-in-the-mouth scene just to shock us into watching the whole thing to see how the events lead up to that. But it turns out that he never actually does it anyway.
Another problem is that the person playing the girl looked too old for the character. She is playing a 16/18 year old girl but her face looks like late 20's perhaps even early 30's. It completely drew me out of the movie. Then there is the fact that after only the second time of even seeing each other the girl kisses Mason. There wasn't even any good build up to it. It just made her seem slutty. I also found her suicide highly aggravating. I am sorry but she was not mentally strong enough to kill herself by simply throwing herself in the slow-moving stream. She could not have resisted bringing herself back up for air. Even Virginia Woolf had to weigh herself down with rocks so she could drown herself.
Another bothersome event in the film was the fact that they just skipped the kid's 2 years in jail. I mean they just completely ignored a great opportunity to build on the depth of his character, his relationship with his parents, and development of anything with Danny. There is also the fact that no one in this town goes to high school or college or talks about it when they are out of it or not going to it. At least Mason should have been talking about it because he's supposed to be the angsty teen whose too smart for his dive of a town. But he is not smart because to him apparently the only way to escape his town is suicide or in the end to hop on a train and in probability become a bum. So in the end he is stupid and depressed which makes for a very uncompelling character.
I thought the Father did a good job but they didn't do enough with him. We don't even learn if he won the election or not after he ends up accidentally killing one person and sending his son to jail for.
The only thing I find no fault with in this movie is the setting. It is gorgeous and I doubt anyone can argue against that.
I have a lot of problems with this movie. The beginning is one. After watching the whole thing, I can say with confidence that they threw in that gun-in-the-mouth scene just to shock us into watching the whole thing to see how the events lead up to that. But it turns out that he never actually does it anyway.
Another problem is that the person playing the girl looked too old for the character. She is playing a 16/18 year old girl but her face looks like late 20's perhaps even early 30's. It completely drew me out of the movie. Then there is the fact that after only the second time of even seeing each other the girl kisses Mason. There wasn't even any good build up to it. It just made her seem slutty. I also found her suicide highly aggravating. I am sorry but she was not mentally strong enough to kill herself by simply throwing herself in the slow-moving stream. She could not have resisted bringing herself back up for air. Even Virginia Woolf had to weigh herself down with rocks so she could drown herself.
Another bothersome event in the film was the fact that they just skipped the kid's 2 years in jail. I mean they just completely ignored a great opportunity to build on the depth of his character, his relationship with his parents, and development of anything with Danny. There is also the fact that no one in this town goes to high school or college or talks about it when they are out of it or not going to it. At least Mason should have been talking about it because he's supposed to be the angsty teen whose too smart for his dive of a town. But he is not smart because to him apparently the only way to escape his town is suicide or in the end to hop on a train and in probability become a bum. So in the end he is stupid and depressed which makes for a very uncompelling character.
I thought the Father did a good job but they didn't do enough with him. We don't even learn if he won the election or not after he ends up accidentally killing one person and sending his son to jail for.
The only thing I find no fault with in this movie is the setting. It is gorgeous and I doubt anyone can argue against that.