I really felt like going out and seeing something, and it was either this or Pitch Perfect. As the reviews for this one have actually been pretty good, I thought I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately, it falls into a genre of films that just don't work for me. Specifically, the navel-gazing "Waah I'm a high school outsider and everyone hates me even though I'm white and fairly well-off. Lets go listen to The Smiths" type films. They just never ring true, and the fact that I typically find their portrayal of high school utterly false means that I'm automatically predisposed to disliking them, no matter how well they're executed. Therefore, the fact that I didn't find Wallflower completely annoying is actually a compliment. Since the film gives the main character significant mental problems, brought on by real trauma, I could buy his general darkness and alienation, even though I couldn't identify with the general setup of the film. Therefore, as this genre goes, this is probably an above average entry.
That's not to say I'm completely in on the film. Its still achingly sincere (almost eye-rollingly so) and there is still too much of the "Wow high school is the most important time ever, and is going to define the rest of my life" attitude. Again, I fully admit that because I never felt particularly moved one way or another by High School that I am not who the film is targeting. I'm sure there's a certain segment of the population who will find this type of story, and consider it as speaking directly to their life experience (kind of like Crank 2 does for me). Really, its kind of like that HBO show Girls. I really tried to get into it, and I can see that there's some real skill going into its creation. However, it's just portraying a certain type of person, and life experience, that I have absolutely no identification with and as a result can't get into it. I'm not sure if this means that there's a problem with the show (since theoretically great art should be universal). Actually, since I'm always right that's exactly what it means. Glad we cleared that up.
That's not to say I'm completely in on the film. Its still achingly sincere (almost eye-rollingly so) and there is still too much of the "Wow high school is the most important time ever, and is going to define the rest of my life" attitude. Again, I fully admit that because I never felt particularly moved one way or another by High School that I am not who the film is targeting. I'm sure there's a certain segment of the population who will find this type of story, and consider it as speaking directly to their life experience (kind of like Crank 2 does for me). Really, its kind of like that HBO show Girls. I really tried to get into it, and I can see that there's some real skill going into its creation. However, it's just portraying a certain type of person, and life experience, that I have absolutely no identification with and as a result can't get into it. I'm not sure if this means that there's a problem with the show (since theoretically great art should be universal). Actually, since I'm always right that's exactly what it means. Glad we cleared that up.
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