Amy George

Not completely awful but really boring. No story, looks like ad lib dialogue, poor casting, filming is terrible, half the time super dark with no reason. It doesn't know where it's going and any direction it chooses, well it doesn't begin. Is this a story about a boy with a fixation on his neighbor, nope, is it a coming of age story, nope, is it a discovery of what it means to be an artist, nope. That sappy piano and ugly music at the end is really over the top, as though they failed throughout and had to somehow try to drive home some emotion. I wish I could find something redeeming but there isn't. It's sort of like high school budget meets every major cliché, but a collection of clichés does not make a film.

I had the good fortune of seeing Amy George at the Brooklyn Film Festival. The film somehow manages to be both an accurate portrayal of Toronto (a city I've had the good fortune to spend time exploring) and teen-hood (a phase of life I had the mixed fortune of experiencing).

It's a beautifully shot film that (unlike many teen-focused films) resists going over the top, relying on the strong performances of their teen leads and strong script.

Overall, Amy George both stayed true to my memories of my time as a teenager, while reminding me of how complicated, difficult and touching that phase of life can be. I was surprised to find a film that achieve both of those goals and recommend Amy George highly.

Another one of these introspective movies in which nothing happens and they try to save it with music. (The music track is actually quite good.) The coming-of-age set-up would be fine if there was an actual story here. There isn't. We've seen it all before - the dreamy shrimpy kid, the sexual longing, the bad girl object of his fantasies. It might have worked if there was a script. Instead we have far too many long scenes that come out of nowhere and lead nowhere, bits and pieces of story line, and gauzy shots that are presumably meant to invoke some higher plane of artistic intensity - all of which might be excusable as a pretentious but understandable excess in a film school project, but ought to have been weeded out by a major film festival that charges twenty bucks a ticket for what is supposed to be a professional effort. Is there a plus side? Yes - there are some brief moments of humor and good timing by the actors; the Amy George role is very well acted and the character carries a lot of undeveloped menace that the filmmakers could have zeroed in on to much greater advantage than following Jesse's fuzzy (and totally unoriginal) adolescent yearnings. Amy at least is interesting and a bit original.

13 year old Jesse is excited when his mother buys him an old camera. He is growing obsessed with sex. He reads in a book about being a true artist. He spies on his beautiful older neighbor girl Amy George. Then she ends up staying with his family.

This is a striped down indie. It is slow but it is engaging. The movie does need to start with his obsession with Amy sooner. Instead, the movie starts with two other girls. Maybe, the second girl should be cut out of the movie. The first scene is good shock and awe. Quite frankly, the first girl is given little screen time and serves well as the explosive first gut punch. After that, it should be all Amy George and nobody else. As for the slow quiet style, it's an artistic choice. Some people will get bored but I survived it. The more disquieting aspect is the subject matter. There are some very dangerous material being handled with kid gloves. It's compelling and also very disturbing in its matter of fact way.

My brother took me to this film at a Brooklyn film festival because the soundtrack features four of his compositions. Nevertheless, about halfway through the film I found myself wondering why in the world I was sitting there watching it. The film tells the story of several days in the life of Jesse, a 13-year-old boy in Toronto. The filmmakers have nothing original to say about this well-worn topic. Several events or statements by characters feel unrealistic but not in an interesting way or for an interesting purpose. For example, numerous comments about sexual orientation and alcohol ring untrue. The biggest example is what Jesse chooses to submit as his assignment in a photography class, a choice with pointless shock value and no apparent connection to his character. The acting is uneven but the cast doesn't have much to work with, given the limitations of the script. The cinematography is beyond bad, full of pointlessly quirky shots that suggest the camera-work of a first-year film student who is just fooling around.