LOVE, SIMON

Nick Robinson     Josh Duhamel     Jennifer Garner     Talitha Bateman

Katherine Langford     Alexandra Shipp     Logan Miller     Kelynan Lonsdale     Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.

    Unlike many films about teens, Love, Simon is mostly a realistic portrayal, with occasional gems of wisdom about how people in general think, act, and feel.  Simon (Robinson) is an appealing teenager with good friends, a wholesome family life, and enough talent to stand out in a crowd.  He has been brought up well, and only occasionally displays the sulk American adolescents are known for.  But, he is coming to the realization that he is attracted to boys and doesn’t quite know what to do about it.

   Enter a clueless wannabe Martin (Miller), who gains access to Simon’s personal information and proceeds to blackmail Simon, manipulating him to get a girl for Martin.  This will be matchmaking hell for Simon, but he is naïve and thinks he can pull it off—just to keep his secret, secret.

     Added to this scenario, are pictures of high school in general—hallway encounters, the cafeteria, the school play, and parties.  Based on a book by Becky Albertalli, a clinical psychologist whose experience includes a specialty in children and teens and work in a high school, it comes across as plausible and a perceptive understanding of life in that realm.  Screenwriters Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker seem to have preserved many of the basic ideas, although I have a hunch that some scenes/characters were add-ons, such as the goofus vice principal (parody of a fool) and the sweet reveal and tie-up-with-a-bow ending.

     The director, Greg Berlanti, and screenwriters have a background in producing and writing for television, and in some ways, Love, Simon resembles a television program or series more than a feature film.  That is a way of saying that the story is delightfully entertaining, although it has “bite” as well in its observations about teens and high school life and the profound experience of facing/establishing one’s identity.  A special treat is seeing Simon trying to identify his anonymous correspondent on social media.  He makes the same mistakes that many of us have in trying to decide whether an acquaintance or friend is gay.

     Nick Robinson is well cast as Simon, with just the right balance of naïveté, trust, skepticism, and doubt in a coming-of-age teenager.  With his success in The Kings of Summer, he should have a bright future.  Other standouts among the teens are Katherine Langford as Leah, Simon’s life-long friend; Alexandra Shipp, the precocious sex symbol; and Logan Miller as the cringe-worthy budding sociopath.  Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel handle the not particularly challenging roles of mother and father to Simon.

     This is a film that will appeal to those interested in expanding their tolerance and understanding of alternative identities that go beyond simply male and female. 

A budding romance a little outside the norm.

Grade:  B+                        By Donna R. Copeland

EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING

Amanda Stenberg     Nick Robinson     Anika Noni Rose     Ana de la Reguera

     The film is based on a young adult novel by Nicola Yoon with a screenplay by J. Mills Goodloe, which, I gather, follows the book very closely.  After seeing it and regarding it as a pie-in-the-sky story about teenagers (which resembles more of a ten year-old’s fantasy to me), imagine my surprise to find the book has been so well received (4½ stars on Amazon) and judged to be one of the best books of the year.  It’s a completely fanciful tale about a girl with SCID (Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease) who has essentially lived in a bubble all her life. 

     Madeline’s mother, a physician, has constructed a beautiful room for her with a scenic view outdoors, and she spends her time reading, writing reviews, playing Scrabble with her mom, and exploring on the internet.  She has a nurse who is like a friend—her only friend.  When a family moves in next door, Madeline (Stenberg) watches from her window and notices a blonde boy her age.  This is Olly (Robinson), and they make eye contact, wave, and soon are texting back and forth.  He is friendly and playful, and Maddy, as he calls her, is very excited about having a friend her age to relate to.  Their friendship is facilitated by her nurse Carla (de la Reguera), but when Maddy’s mother finds out (after some of Maddy’s risky behavior), Carla is fired, and a regimented nurse takes her place.  This is too much for Maddy, and she decides to take matters into her own hands.

     So much of this film strains credulity.  For instance, no one wears a mask or gown when they’re with Maddy, which I thought was always required for reverse isolation, and which I presume is what Maddy’s room is.  She tells us that items coming in are irradiated to remove any contaminants, but the mother and nurse come and go without seeming to change anything (oh, once we see Carla changing her shoes). 

     But really, the most inauthentic part of the film is the dialog between the two teenagers and the easy sociability of a girl who has lived her whole life essentially alone.  It’s hard to imagine how she could navigate the scenes she’s in after such an existence. 

     Portraying Maddy, Amanda Stenberg (Hunger Games) brings her character to life in a convincing performance that makes you believe in her and root for her.  Nick Robinson (The Kings of Summer, Jurassic World) as a boy who is supposed to be a bit awkward and from a troubled family shows his skill in his portrayal of the type of insecurity that comes from an abusive father, and with protective feelings for those he feels responsible for.  Supporting actors Anika Noni Rose and Ana de la Reguera fill out the cast nicely.

     Everything, Everything is directed by three-time director Stella Meghie, and she should be pleased with her work here.  The detraction of the film for me is the screenplay’s unrealistic presentation of an illness and the portrayal of teenagers that lacks authenticity and believability.

Everything, Everything is too sweet and too “precious” to be what it wants to be.

Grade:  D                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE 5TH WAVE

Chloe Grace Moretz   Nick Robinson  Alex Roe  Liev Schreiber  Maria Bello  Ron Livingston  Maggie Siff

          What are the waves, this being the fifth, you may ask.  The Fifth Wave refers to a series of attacks by an alien planet that needs earth’s resources.  Their invasion comes in waves, such as a gigantic power outage, an earthquake with tsunami, Asian flu, occupation (including occupation of individual humans), and finally full-on invasion with the purpose of killing all survivors.

           Cassie (Moretz) is the narrator who is in high school when the first wave hits.  She is living with her mother, father, and younger brother and interested in the usual teen preoccupations.  She has a crush on a classmate and is teased by her best friend.  With progressive waves of alien attacks, she anguishes about her losses, but is determined to rescue her brother who was taken away with other children in a school bus on orders of the U.S. military.  Cassie was supposed to go too, but missed it when she went to fetch her brother’s toy bear. 

         What follows is a chronicle of her experiences in trying to survive and rescue her brother and never knowing whether a person she meets is enemy or friend.  The aliens have taken to “occupying” human bodies as a control measure.  All this adds up to a pervasive paranoia in which no one knows whether a person is human or alien. 

          The first half of this drama is intriguing (although not really original in conception), but it eventually devolves into a morass of predictability and romantic kitsch, ending with the pronouncement that “love is not a trick; it’s real.”

         Moretz is at her usual fine skill in portraying a young woman with smarts, always ready to learn, and showing a nice range of emotional expression.  Her two co-stars, Robinson as Ben and Roe as Evan Walker, match her very well, and provide the opportunity to prove that females can be as strong and effective as males.  Further, the character of Ringer (Maika Monroe) is a sassy upstart who uses her brain and skill to figure out a situation and act decisively. 

      The portrayal of males and females is perhaps the only plus in The Fifth Wave.  Females are both nurturing/caring and skillful in fighting, and males are protective and strong while also giving females space to show what they can do. 

         Enrique Chediak’s cinematographic art comes through repeatedly, most strikingly when Cassie and her brother have climbed a tree to escape the tsunami.  He shows a bird’s eye view of them that quickly evolves into a palette of leaves, making the viewer wonder if they survived.

          While it’s not perhaps as original as desired, Director J. Blakeson has put together an interesting apocalyptic tale with talented actors.  I take a bit of a jaundiced eye toward it in its playing up the existence of a threat implying that everyone should be armed at all times.  Guns are highlighted so much I began to wonder if the NRA helped finance the movie. 

Gun advocates will love this movie; others, perhaps, not so much.

Grade:  D+           By Donna R. Copeland