3.5 stars. Rated PG-13, dramatic intensity and considerable bad behavior by teens
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 3.3.17
This could be subtitled Mean Girls Meets Groundhog Day.
 |
| The party is going well, which means that Lindsay (Halston Sage, far left) and her posse — from left, Sam (Zoey Deutch), Ally (Cynthy Wu) and Elody (Medalion Rahimi) — already have humiliated a fair number of peers. Sadly, the worst is yet to come. |
But while there’s considerable
truth to that mash-up designation, Maria Maggenti’s adaptation of Lauren Oliver’s
young adult novel is reasonably inventive in its own right; the narrative
doesn’t succumb to potential pitfalls, and a third-act twist is a clever
surprise. Director Ry Russo-Young draws credible performances from her young
cast, and the result is a solid improvement over her earlier efforts (the
little-seen Nobody Walks and You Won’t Miss Me).
But Russo-Young and Maggenti
partially sabotage their efforts with superfluous voice-over narration and a
wholly unnecessary flash-forward framing device, both of which imply that we
dumb viewers aren’t savvy enough to follow the story on its own merits. While
this likely is an effort to replicate the inner thoughts of the central
character in Oliver’s book, film is a different medium. Contemplative narration
that works on the page falls flat on the screen, feeling too much like a New
Age sermon. (“Maybe for you there’s a tomorrow...”)
All concerned should have more
faith: The core gimmick isn’t that hard to follow, and Zoey Deutch’s heartfelt
performance easily anchors the action.
She stars as Samantha (Sam)
Kingston, who wakens on what she assumes will be an average day ... which is to
say, another opportunity to behave like the other condescending, insufferably
spoiled bee-yatches in her posse: Ally (Cynthy Wu), Elody (Medalion Rahimi) and
most particularly the hateful Lindsay (Halson Sage). All four wear upper-class
entitlement on their designer sleeves. (Indeed, everybody in this community
seems to have more money than God.)
This particular day is marked at
the local high school with a pre-Valentine’s Day celebration dubbed Cupid Day,
when single roses are sent by secret admirers. Alas, this is just another cruel
exercise in marginalization: The most popular kids compete to see who can amass
the biggest armload of roses, while those left out feel even more unloved.
Which, in turn, gives Lindsay
another opportunity to taunt those she despises: notably “weird girl” Juliet
(Elena Kampouris) and punkish lesbian Anna (Liv Hewson). Sam, Ally and Elody go
along with such spiteful behavior because, well, that’s what friends do.
Everything about this day is
difficult to endure — for us, as viewers — because of the relentless,
self-centered arrogance. It begins when Sam wakes up, and contemptuously
dismisses a sweet gesture by little sister Izzy (Erica Tremblay), and is
scheduled to conclude after an unsupervised, late-night party, when she loses
her virginity to boyfriend Rob (Kian Lawley), a self-centered lout in his own
right.
