A Girl Like Her

If you are a parent of a child in today's society over the age of 40 this segment is like a "today" version of the after school specials that we watched regarding subjects they were afraid to discuss when we were in school but better.

If you're a young parent you may feel relieved that "someone" is bold enough to tell the truth, and you already know how real this is and how it exists in school whether you were bullied or a bully. If you're a school administrator or teacher it may remind you that you are a part of the problem and/or solution. If you're presently being bullied; hopefully, this will give you the strength to talk to someone. If you're a bully cognizant of your actions hopefully this will show you the view of what your actions look like from the other side. In any event of what brings you to decide to watch this, I do believe this short film will inspire you to be active, aware, relative, honest, accountable, and supportive in whichever direction you walk. After you watch it, you'll see why I didn't give it a ten; but, I don't want this rating to be a spoiler so just watch for yourself and see how you relate to "THE" girl like her.

Saw this movie by chance - was looking for something to watch, opened up Netflix, and it was on the main screen as a suggested title. With a cast of mostly unknowns, I wasn't expecting much. But I was surprised.

The acting was mostly very good. Lexi Ainsworth was very believable as the bullied Jessica. I cried along with her, as someone who was also bullied in high school. (To a lesser extent, and before cell phones and social media were really a thing yet.)

For the most part, the story was believable and moving. My only problem with it was that it reinforces the false assumption that bullies usually have a difficult home life. This was the kind of information that was generally believed to be true back when I was in school (graduated high school in 2002), but we know a lot more today. Most bullies come from good families and have good lives.

By the end of the film, I felt like we were supposed to feel a certain amount of sympathy for Avery. But despite how things were portrayed - her life was really not that bad at all. I felt that a lot of things were exaggerated.

Avery wasn't bullying Jessica because her parents fought sometimes and her mom was a little controlling, she was bullying Jessica because she was a cruel, mean, heartless, narcissistic brat. No one with a conscience could treat another person that way. Period. No sympathy for bullies.

Writer-Director Amy S. Weber just got so much better with her massively insightful and deeply educational film about Bullying entitled "A Girl Like Her". It is one of the best movies about Bullying I have seen. The movie stars Lexi Ainsworth as Jessica Burns, a high school sophomore who has been a victim of bullying & cyberbullying by the mean spirited Avery Keller, played by Hunter King. Jessica's best friend is Brian Slater, played by Jimmy Bennett. Each attend South Brookdale High School, who has been named one of the top high schools in the country. A documentary team does a feature on the accolades of South Brookdale, but simultaneously as that is happening, Jessica tries to commit suicide due to Avery's rambunctious & endless bullying preyed on to Jessica. In finding out that Avery bullied Jessica, the film team decides to twist the feature and focus it on Avery and her dealings on being a popular student. Many lessons on Bullying are presented very effectively throughout the rest of the film. I believe that every high school should show "A Girl Like Her" to their students, it is that important of a subject matter and Weber does an admirable job in highlighting the effects of bullying, the importance of being a proactive bystander, and what makes a bully commit harassing acts. And the film's integration of surveillance makes it an even more deeper look into the Bullying subject matter. I liked the work of Ainsworth as Burns, but the showstopper performance here is from Hunter King as Keller. Hunter might have just hunted down some more motion picture roles in springboarding from her phenomenal work here. Hey, I'm not gonna bully you into watching "A Girl Like Her", but I do think it's an upstanding film! ***** Excellent

Filmed like it was some kind of a documentary, this powerful drama is a real eye opener. A GIRL LIKE HER shows how painful, how piercing, how damaging bullying can be in this day and age where thanks to social media, the means to intimidate, threaten, and taunt somebody has increased significantly, there's about a dozen or more different ways to tell somebody to go kill themselves these days.

A GIRL LIKE HER uses today's popular hand held cam found footage style, but instead of ghosts and supernatural, it tackles the one problem that doesn't seem to want to go away from high schools everywhere, and that is bullying. You would think that after that one whole anti-bullying campaign a few years back, that our high schoolers would be in harmony, singing kumbaya with no problems anymore, but nope.

In this drama, Jessica Burns used to be best friend with Avery Keller, but like most friends, they grow up and grow apart, and one small incident causes Avery to feel resentful towards Jessica. From that point on, Avery victimizes Jessica in every possible way. But the whole high school sees Avery as a saint. And so Jessica's friend, Brian Slater helps Jessica hides a hidden digital camera that captures every evidence of Avery's harassment.

A documentary filmmaker and her crew visit South Brookdale high school to cover the story of the school's success, but they ultimately find a more pressing story in this particular ordeal when Jessica's suicide attempt shocks the entire school. What I think is powerful about A GIRL LIKE HER is that the story is all too common, meaning there is something usually the matter in the bully's home that motivates that bully to bully other people, that and the two opposing sides used to be best friends at one point in time, that is a common story in a lot of bullying cases out there, so A GIRL LIKE HER speaks to the here and now, it goes straight for the jugular, it's not one dimensional, it's not far-fetched either. And I have to give mad props to Hunter King's performance as Avery Keller, the way she tries to cover up Avery's sins, the way she tries to deny them, and the way she bullies, it doesn't get b*tchier than Hunter and she was very convincing. Why kids today still bully each other, I just don't understand, but perhaps bullying is not something that can ultimately be abolished once and for all. We have to keep constantly teach our young ones to respect and show kindness to one another and then hope that they too will teach their kids the same valuable lesson, it all starts at home.

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Really this is quite powerful and if it were compulsory viewing for school children I'm sure in those schools where it was shown bullying would reduce. Not sure at which age would be ideal for the viewing.

Perhaps experts in psychology could figure this out. Probably look at the stats on what particular age group experiences the increase in bullying and go from there.

Parents need to watch it as well, though it is more difficult to make it compulsory for parents.

Well made, strong message, solid acting and an ethically important work. Well done to all those involved and I hope those that are the victims in real life get some betterment out of this.

Thanks for the learning experience.