Gaby Ward

Reviews and other content aren't verified by Google

This movie is too frustrating to watch. This is a word for word quote from the movie: "You think your life is hard? I'm a high school junior wearing size 13 Nikes... Beat that." BIG DEAL!! There are kids who face racism or violence in their area, kids growing up in war zones, kids with abusive parents or no parents at all, etc. I get that she's insecure and gets picked on, but I don't know many kids that aren't, which makes her problems seem relatively insignificant. Other than her taller-than-average stature, Jodi is still genetically blessed, has a loving (if a bit strange) family and supportive friends around her. Her ungratefulness and failure to consider others' feelings and problems whatsoever (namely Jack and Fareeda) makes her immediately unlikable, which isn't good considering she's the sole protagonist. Aside from the issues I have with the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of the character Jodi's perspective, I find that not many characters are as developed as they ought to be, especially Fareeda and Kimmy. It is hinted that Fareeda has problems which Jodi fails to ask about and she disappears about halfway through the film. The writers create little more to her than the archetypal "loud, supportive, funny black friend" who's in most high school dramas these days and they always ought to and have potential to be as high a quality, complex, developed character as their white counterpart, but the writers never seem to bother. As for Kimmy, they imply that she has certain insecurities about her beauty but we are never shown why. Perhaps a narrative arc showing her being constantly compared to a sister or someone as a young child would've shown her to be more human than the boring, stereotypical mean girl we see in every teen movie. I think individually the actors all do a good job in portraying the character written for them and the colourful visuals are aesthetically pleasing. Overall, an underdeveloped, underwhelming and same-y execution of what could've been a cool and unique concept.