July 7, 2015 2:20 PM - Subscribe
Life changes for Malcolm, a geek who's surviving life in a tough neighborhood, after a chance invitation to an underground party leads him and his friends into a Los Angeles adventure.
posted by chrchr (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
I really liked this movie. It moved at a really good pace and I thought all of the characters were pretty interesting and unique. Some of the marketing is a little confusing, since the kids are fans of 90s hip hop and culture but it can sometimes seem like that's when the movie takes place. It takes place in the present day.
There are a couple scenes where some of the humor gets a little toilet-y for me, but overall this was a pretty great updated entry in the "senior year of high school" genre.
posted by dogwalker at 6:54 PM on July 8, 2015
I liked this movie a lot. I did think that the blackmail scheme was handled a bit oddly, not that that guy didn't deserve it, but just that Malcolm was so nervous about the other illegal stuff and then he was suddenly totally cold blooded. It also seemed like the recording session never paid off. Maybe there were cut scenes or something-it just seemed like there would be some call back about that song being a super popular download or Awreeo getting well known outside of the Lily sales because of it.
posted by Missense Mutation at 8:57 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
not that that guy didn't deserve it, but just that Malcolm was so nervous about the other illegal stuff and then he was suddenly totally cold blooded
I totally thought that was Malcolm's character development kicking in. That was essentially his arc. A lot of that was spelled out in scene in the garment district with the money in the bags, and then the subsequent scene where he was jumped, and in the scene with Zoe Kravitz where she says he's not as different as he claimed.
(I also loved this movie. *Loved* it.)
posted by chrchr at 12:32 PM on July 9, 2015
Yeah, that's true-I guess it's because that clearly had to be planned from the very beginning, before those scenes.
I really appreciated the characters in this movie. There is very little stereotyping/character tropes, and they seemed more realistic for it. Even in (most) of the minor characters.
posted by Missense Mutation at 10:44 AM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Really liked this a lot, with some minor reservations. Malcolm's arc was well-earned and believable, and I loved Diggy and Jib. My biggest complaint after it was over was that the Zoe Kravitz character and Malcolm's mom both seemed underserved...In the case of the mom my problem could just be that I expected more since Kimberly Elise is fairly well-known, I'm not sure that she necessarily needed more to do for this story...But with Zoe Kravitz, she was set up as kind of a pivotal character but she's gone for the middle third of the movie; when she showed up again I'd nearly forgotten about her.
But the movie is so fun, with enough actual stakes that you don't forget or take too lightly how dangerous all of this stuff really is...The trailer had me expecting a light comedy, which most of the movie is, but at the beginning when we're shown the example of the geek who got shot just standing in line at a fast food place, I knew that it wasn't going to be a total fantasy world of good kids getting mixed up with low-stakes crime hijinx...I loved when Malcolm's potential for turning to violence came to a head when he pulled the gun on the bully...Shameik Moore's performance there (and throughout the movie) was outstanding.
I had already been really impressed with Moore of course, but then that dancing over the end credits totally clinched it...So great.
posted by doctornecessiter at 6:00 AM on July 13, 2015
Also, it's really easy to look the other way on the fact that a high school three-piece punk band sound pretty much as well-produced as N.E.R.D even when just practicing in the band room (when the janitor walked in in the middle of the first song, I was certain that it was going to cut from "how they think they sound" to a less-polished reality) when these Pharrell songs are so catchy and good.
Such a great movie, I'm only surprised it want more popular initially. I think it's going to become a classic.
posted by fshgrl at 11:07 PM on February 25, 2016
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