Teen Spirit (2011)

I'm almost surprised I'm bothering to write a comment 'cause, I don't think this was ever meant to be art, I suppose I just have a hard time getting beyond the fact that this was directed by Gil Junger, who also directed '10 Things I Hate About You,' which is one of my fave teen movies. There were some really good elements in here, so, I guess when that happens I don't understand why they didn't strive for better. The pluses are the two main girls. The minuses, the writing, the narrator, and the awkward portrayal of an angel, but, as you become more interested in the two main girls, the rest becomes more digestible. There is a reason for agism and it's because someone who is old enough to write for 'Growing Pains,' shouldn't still be writing teen movies. They're out of touch. I felt like this is a Disney slop job that was constructed by a development team of non-writers, most or all over 40, then the script was handed off to a couple guys in their 50s and given a short time frame to complete it. Basically, a writing for quick cash job. They rented 'Cant Buy Me Love' and 'Teen Angel,' for sure, and a bunch of other teen movies, watched them, copied them, then cranked out a script. All the plot points and some of the dialogue is ripped directly from other movies. And having this really weird narration in the first 5 minutes and then having at least 3 lines ripped from other teen movies in the first 10 minutes was pretty jarring and off putting, and made me consider turning it off.

Once the story focuses more on the two main girls, who play their parts very well, you begin to pay more attention to them and so the poor attempt at trying to write mean-girl remarks that seem savvy and of the times, but are not, are easier to ignore. I mean, I understand, I've seen fat, schluby guys in their 40s who look like they never had a teen social life be given writing jobs writing about what it's like to be a teenager. And boys clubs of men in their 50s giving each other work writing for kids, and they don't have kids, don't remember what it's like to be kids...but, it's out of touch execs giving work to even less out of touch writers. There are plenty of good adult writers who actually do like this kind of material and will do the research to make it sound convincing. If you're going to take up an hour-and-a-half of my time, I want to feel like my time has been respected and that your paycheck was earned rather than something you cranked off in a week in a coffee shop...if that.

ABC Family does have some really good programming...in fact, the only 3 shows I watched on here were all really good, so, I guess my expectations were a bit higher. As someone who's worked in kids programming for 10+ years, as most of my friends have, and love it, I never understand when there are craftsman who just drop the ball and do it for a paycheck. Especially when you have two great leads who were the only thing that saved this project. Imagine what it could have been like if there was more for them to work with and deliver. The fact that the girl who played the nerd was able to pull off getting choked up and emotional in the end, when the writers kind of left her hanging and to fend for herself, was fairly impressive. I actually got choked up, which I was like, "What? This movie is so cheeseball. How did that happen?" So, that is good acting if she could make me feel it, especially given the circumstances of the whole of the project. Don't get me wrong, there was some bad and mediocre acting in this project and the high school had a really bad matte screen, but some of the characters were worth watching.