Going the Distance

First Hit: Drew Barrymore and Justin Long make this film work in many ways.

Barrymore plays Erin, who is a writing graduate student at Stanford University doing a summer internship at a New York City newspaper called The Sentinel. While there, she happens upon Garrett (played by Justin Long) who is sitting and moping to his friends about the girl who just walked out on him.

His friends, Dan and Box (played by Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis respectively) listen to his bemoaning all the time because he never really commits to a girl and they often end up in a bar having some beer lamenting his misfortune.

He and Erin find they have things in common and end up having a few drinks, then spend the night together. She tells him the next day she only has 6 weeks left in town and therefore doesn’t want to do anything serious. She also explains that she has already once followed a man around the US only to lose sight of her life and she won’t do this again.

As you would expect, they fall in love, have a long distance relationship and spend the rest of the film finding out a way to be together.

What worked about this film was the dialogue. It was crisp, open and very much built on today’s ideas and ideals. I also thought that, as a couple, they were well matched and seemed to fit both physically and emotionally.

The other characters, Dan, Box, and Erin’s sister Corrine (played by Christina Applegate) were extremely useful to the plot, dialogue and movement of the film.

Barrymore was great, open, fully charged and engaging as Erin. She seems to gaining more maturity and strength personally which results in deeper characters. Long was in one of his better roles. He usually is the calm, cool and collected guy, who is clearly in-charge of his feelings, but here there is a movement to expose himself more and with Barrymore there was a connection which he didn’t hide. Day and Sudeikis were perfect amusing foils to Long and gave the film some of its funniest moments while also making sure there was some truth to the whole story. Applegate was a joy to see as the Barrymore’s older sister. She was vulnerable, possessive, controlling and supportive at all the right times. Geoff LaTulippe wrote a strong script while Nanette Burstein did a great job with both the story and the characters.

Overall: This was a well done romantic funny film and even though we all know the ending long before it arrives, it was a fun ride.

American Teen

First Hit: An amazingly frank and wonderful look at teens in their senior year.

Five Warsaw Indiana teens are profiled in this documentary about their significant events and decisions while in their senior year.

Granted Warsaw is a relatively small town and the ethnic diversity of this film could create questions as to how relevant it is, but I imagine that in Warsaw there aren’t a lot of different cultures represented. Regardless, the struggles of these teens cut across cultural backgrounds and are refreshingly honest. The teens in this film cut across a spectrum.

There is Megan who is the rich, bossy, arrogant, and mean girl who is homecoming queen and is known by all and the queen of the class. She lashes back at friends and fellow students who cross her or don’t follow her lead. Then you begin to get a glimpse of the pressure on her to get into Notre Dame by her father and how scared she is of not making the grade.

You also get a hint of her sadness around her older sister’s suicide. Colin, the basketball star, who appears to be a one-trick-pony through basketball but there are moments of something more. It was so sad and hard to hear his father say, you either get a scholarship or it’s the Army (which he is adamantly against). Although, his family isn’t rich, it appeared they weren’t all that bad off but nowhere was there any dialog about how his family might support him getting into college.

There is Jake the geek with a face full of pimples who is obsessed with having a girlfriend which will define him. He sees himself as a looser and invisible to himself and the world. In one pointed scene while his girlfriend, who has cheated on him, tells him that they need to see other people, he lifts his head from the table and says: “there’s a lot of grease on the table now.”

There is Mitch, the likable popular jock, who begins to learn he is something more than the nice popular guy; he has a spirit and soul which he begins to discover with Hannah.

Then there is Hannah. This film could have been all about her. She is quirky, dynamic, eclectic, interesting and full of spirit. Hannah wants out of Warsaw, she doesn’t want a life like her parents or anyone else in Warsaw, and she dances to her own drummer. She lives with her grandmother because her mother is in and out of a institution due to her depression and her father travels for work.

Hannah becomes devastated when her long time boyfriend breaks up with her right after having sex for the first time. She doesn’t go to school for weeks and is walking a knife’s edge. She gets back into school, graduates and stands up to her parents who tell her she shouldn’t go to California and that “she’s not special” when everyone in the audience knows she is an amazing energy force.

Nanette Burstein directed this very insightful and interesting film. It was nice at the end to have a quick follow-up as to what each person has done 18 months after graduation. I appreciated the fearlessness the subjects showed while being filmed.

Overall: This a great film for teens and adults of teens to see.