The Art of Getting By (2011)

Please don't spend money on this.

From my favorite movies..

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

George is clearly a very intelligent young man with an artistic gift, but he is merely 'getting by' because he is so disillusioned with the world he sees around him that he just doesn't see the point in following the traditional study - work - family track laid out for him. Let's face it, he's not alone in that - I think a lot of people would find this film interesting on a personal level (and not only teenagers!). It is to George's credit that his principle and teachers are rooting for him, given his absence of effort coupled with a level of honesty that sometimes crosses the respectful boundary, basically because he is fortunate that they recognise his basic goodness and innocence. They do have their professional obligations, however, which leads to George being given an ultimatum if he intends to graduate. Those same interesting qualities are presumably the reason he hasn't been marginalised by the other students, but is the one who chooses to stay apart - this is clearly a rather special school! There is one person he has noticed though, and when she corresponds a relationship develops. And as with any couple who are afraid to make a commitment without being sure their romantic feelings are reciprocated - exacerbated by George's lack of skill in dealing with human relationships; he's probably borderline autistic - confusion about where their relationship is headed leads to complications. I won't spoil the journey by giving away any more though - it's a film worth seeing for yourselves.

Freddie Highmore was appropriate as child star ( Spiderwick Chronicles ) and he shines , in this movie , as a teen , not fitting in his surroundings but it is not a typical weird-teen drama , loved it because of its heart .

I usually don't have a habit of writing reviews for movies. This one however left a couple of thoughts on my mind that I'd like to express. Well for starters, I love the pace (a relatively quick movie), the atmosphere which it has (no Hollywood spotless scenes, just simple everyday life) , the reality of the whole plot. I think within a lot of us there's a George in our nature, a bit of insecurity, a bit of slacking off, a bit of the "fuck the world" feeling so right away the main character is easy to relate to. I loved how raw it all was, I can relate to his lack of motivation so bad it almost hurts and to that the feelings of "parents are not helping" and "girl I like doesn't feel the same way" is describing my high school life entirely! Up to the point where he was "betrayed" by the one girl he fell for I was rating this movie a 9. The truth is I'm not a big fan of happy endings cause they are too expected & not realistic enough for my taste. When I saw Sally return to George and not leave for Europe I was like "meh, that's no 9" but I can appreciate how the message of "don't let what you truly desire slip off your hands" affected this movie. Being moving and motivating as it was, this movie was realistic enough to be at least an 8, although it wasn't quite a "Get off your butt and live life to the fullest"!

Oh you are actually trying to be something you're not.Don't see this.Seriously, throughout the whole film there was a "#deep" feeling, which *could* have been good if it was properly devised. Which it clearly wasn't. The pointlessness aspect of the movie lasted for the first 5 minutes and the main character's (and the movie's) ideals kind of shift here and there, without any depth at all. The music was just terrible and felt anticlimactic most of the time. Oh and the basis of the whole story - you know, the way the main character met this girl (whose name I can't remember) was very unlikely, who actually notices if someone's smoking on the roof? Her interest in him doesn't really make any sense either, (of course, love or interest doesn't always make sense, but I had a hard time sympathizing with both of them) he's completely unsociable and responds with a single damn word all the time. Never cracks a good joke or anything. Just an extraordinarily awkward teenager teenager. The script was awful too. /rant over.