Tanner Hall (2011)

People are voting emotionally.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Oh, that cold old new movie THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. All excited about it, people flock to see. What for? What's so great about it? It's dark and stark and Rooney Mara had to cut off her hair for the part. An ugly, unattractive part. So, it brought her success. But it's a crappy movie. Well, to each their own, if it lights up your life, I'll try to be happy for you.But I prefer my birds to be bright and chirpy and flying about fluttering like cute little angels. Which is not exactly the character Rooney portrays, but you get my drift. I mean, just look at lovely, lovely Rooney in the opening sequence as she gets driven to school by her mother, chewing a piece of gum, much to Mom's chagrin. She looks like a cuter version of Elisha Dushku. She has a cheekbone structure to die for. Has got to be one of the prettiest actresses on film. Hell, people, if I looked like that, and they offered me like gazillion bucks to appear in a hit movie, I'd think about what I'd miss every time I passed a mirror. And, on top of that, the even better part that would have come her way anyway, so scrooo your dragon tattoo offer...! That scene with Rooney with the guy and the car amidst the autumn leaves, makes me think of an ad campaign with the slogan 'it doesn't get any better than this.' This is a small movie, with a bad girl that really isn't well-defined, as the Georgia King portrayal turns out to be ultimately toothless. The more well-defined bad girl, the naughty one, the Brie Larson portrayal, as Kate, is more the one that does something awful. She gets banished from the script, unsatisfactorily so. Roller-skating in place, an untimely dismissal...There are some laughable performances. Amy Sidaris and her weakling hubby should have been recast. What were they thinking, those two were a wrecking crew. Georgia King was a storm-in-a-teacup kind of adversary. She should have upped her game play at least tenfold. Brie Larson was excellent. Anybody who could come to class (barely-)dressed up for the plum female part of A Midsummer Night's Dream looking like that, wow! But apart from her obvious beauty, she was also entirely convincing.Plot has its weak points, but for a dedicated girl-watcher, lots to cheer about. Loads more fun than TGWTDT.The decaying, crumbling castle was an excellent choice of location. Does it really exist? No such place found on Google.I forgot the actress's name, but the woman who played the mean mom, at the time of watching, I thought she'd have made a perfect Alexis Carrington had they done a DYNASTY remake.

I had never heard of this film before, so I gave it a go. The opening scene hooked me. It is very relatable. To see how Rooney looked before her major transformation was perhaps the most shocking thing about the film for me. She looked beautiful! My favorite characters turned out to be the minor characters. Her friends, Kate, played by Brie Larson, and Lucasta, played by Amy Ferguson, were the standouts. I was surprised to see Chris Kattan in a film like this, but his performance was outstanding. Same goes for Tom Everett Scott.This is called a coming-of-age tale, but really it's not that epic. It's small, quiet, and frankly chilling at parts, but it is worth an honest watch.

The storyline that goes something like…A coming of age story of teen-age girls in a preppy boarding school, and the R rating, had me believing there would be sex involved and some nudity, which similar basic plots usually have. It was a somewhat serious story, the way it unfolded and how it was written; the script had some narrative that sounded at times more like 'monologuing' than narrative, but it's okay, though I prefer narrative to be more traditional. Of course, I was right about the nudity and the sex, but it did not feel exploitive. The lead, Rooney Mara was twenty four when the movie was made and so playing an 18 year old was sort of a squeeze. She delivered what I think the role called for, but needs to improve her diction by enunciating (something the director should have corrected); I find the near mumbling unacceptable for a lead actor, even if it's not constant. Exception for Nick Nolte who does it on purpose for effect. I trust Mara has had better direction in her massive new role as the new Lisbeth Salander; she was much better in Social Network.Anecdotally, I think I noticed a slight barely perceptible squint/cross when Mara was looking to the side. Rachel Weis use to have that when she stared directly at co-stars (it has since been corrected apparently) and I find that gives a certain allure, a wile one might say; it's the minor imperfections that attract us to some people more than others I once read.None of the principal actresses played characters which had a joyful or happy life. The boarding school for well to-do young girls was their home. There was a narrative line by Mara I will hopefully recall when I need it, because it was a simple but perfect description of the school and also made for a good metaphor… "Tanner Hall is majestic but crumbling". Given the building's size, architecture and age, this was the best and most fitting description.The other three close schoolmates were also attractive. Only two characters had sympathetic roles, Mr. Middlewood, played by Chris Kattan, and Hank, played by Shawn Pyfrom. Kattan had a more important supporting role as a literature professor; I think he was picked because his character was one who was seriously being teased for arousal by one of his student, Kate played by Brie Larson, and also by his wife played by Amy Sedaris. The Middlewoods attempt at sex was a riot; without them the movie would have been a little too boring for me. The affair between Mara and Tom Everett Scott, who played Gio, was so predictable in all aspects that I found little interest in it. You might want to pass on this film; I watched it all because I have an appetite for quantity almost as much as I do for quality. You would want to see it if you watch an inordinate quantity of movies, otherwise pass.

The draw card to Tanner Hall for me was Rooney Mara and Brie Larson, I really like Rooney in everything she has done and Brie is a scream in U.S.O.T, so I wasn't disappointed when I watched Tanner Hall. Yes it's kind of a story we have seen before, four young girls are facing the challenges of adult hood in different ways, they realize some things in life have consequences and sometimes those consequence aren't worth it. They are students at a country side boarding school that is very strict and only seems to inhabit star pupils.To me this movie has a very Sofia Copploa vibe to it, it seemed to me like a cross between The Virgin Suicides and the Eva Green film Cracks, the music, the colors, the actors, the setting, they all have a very Sofia Copploa tone to them, it's very atmospheric in that aspect. Georgia King is really the only character I didn't enjoy, she's so selfish and unhappy in her own life that she decides to bring everyone else down with her, but I suppose she's not a character that you're meant to like, King should tread very carefully as she is in danger if being typecast ad the bitchy English girl at a boarding school as she played a similar role in Wild Child. If there was one story I would have liked to see more it would have been Lucasta's sexual acceptance, it's a story that is I'm sure very common in all girl schools.Rooney Mara is so impressive, she is perfectly understated in her role, not too much, not enough, just right, and Brie Larson does her sassy attitude thing splendidly. I also loved Chris Kattan and Amy Sedaris, they brought so much humor to a serious film, and the director knew just when to have them in a scene, they were used to perfection.I'm not a girl and I enjoyed this film, but I have to say this is really only one for the gals, but it's great no matter what, highly recommended.