The Beautiful Ordinary

I have to say, that when i started watching it, I was expecting a typical teenager film with a few laughs and meaningless ideas. However, i was completely surprised to find myself with a great cast with a lot of young upcoming actors and some new faces which i found were also good. The fact that this film is not centered only on one person's life and stories, but on a group of teenagers who are on the brink of becoming adults, is enthralling. It shows us how different groups, races and sexuality are not important in 1999, where drugs and alcohol are a big factor in teenager lives. Furthermore, i feel that, being a teenager myself, i can relate to the insecurities these teenagers feel and at the same time have a laugh at the film as it is kept pretty real. There really are some funny parts! This film takes in a lot of ideas and thoughts which can be reflected on. It is not just another teenager film. It is well written and well worth watching.

This movie was phenomenal for the audience who can understand it on a deeper level (Think "The Fountain"). Yes, on the surface it seems like another "Dazed and Confused", but its very accurate to its 1999 time period, and the sex and drugs are a key element to what the movie's about, because the sexual desires and drugs are what bring everybody's different social groups together. The reason why some people might hate this movie is because it isn't plot driven. It's instead character driven, and the interesting thing about it is that it doesn't really have lead characters, it just has an outstanding ensemble cast of some rising stars like Khleo Thomas, Melonie Diaz, Lyndsy Fonseca, Amber Heard, Alexa Vega and Chris Marquette, and some newcomers like Charles Chen, Shahine Ezell, and Katrina Begin. I agree with the other commenter that they did an excellent job with the casting, which is very important in a character-driven film. I disagree however, with the comments that Jess Manafort's script tries too hard to be filled with "funny" stoner jokes. There's so much going on in this film, there's so many different characters leading different lifestyles that end up colliding, that for each thing you may hate about the film there will always be something you love. Amber Heard and Melonie Diaz stole the show for the female casting, and Chris Marquette and Charles Chen had to be my favorite male characters. Like I said in the beginning, if you watch this movie on the surface it may seem stupid and old. If you watch it with more concentration to find a deeper meaning, it becomes an excellent teenager film about the key to blending the high school cliques so everybody fits in. I highly recommend it.

I graduated in 1998 and high school was nothing like this. This movie is highly dramatized and different groups of people would never party together. Unfunny, boring, slow, and has way too many Dazed and Confused vibes.

I'm not trying to delude myself about this movie being some spectacular film about anything but I do have to thrown in my two cents. First and foremost, seeing as a lot of the people who have reviewed this either graduated quite a bit before or after (myself included) this movie was supposed to take place, I feel it's necessary to point out that it only takes about two years for trends and music and pretty much everything that's important to us in high school to completely change.

Now, as for this movie in particular, "let's get stoned..." was not NEAR as rampant as I have read nor was it the main focus of A LOT of the characters. Yes the casting was a bit old to be believable, the actors still did a good job of playing their characters. As for the realism of the movie, when I was in high school partying was all I was worried about. I blew off all of my classes and still passed with honors while being baked damn near everyday. This movie isn't near as bad as it's been made out to be nor is it any kinda of revelation to life for teenagers. It's simply a movie about some kids who just graduated and want to kick back. No more no less, and it does a good job of portraying them.

Remember, as fast as things come, they leave, and that applies to high school as well. Don't nuke it people.

"Remember the Daze" is a 2007 direct-to-DVD release whose main claim to fame is an ensemble of the hottest young actresses ever assembled (at least in recent memory). For viewers looking for that sort of thing it starts with then unknowns Leighton Meester and Amber Heard; and doesn't really go downhill much from there with Marnette Patterson, etc.

This is one of those 24-hour important transitional day teen movies, which are produced every few years and key in on a day that marks the passing from one stage of life to another. In this case it is 1999 high school graduation party night (in North Carolina) as the seniors prepare to move on to life after high school. Think "Can't Hardly Wait" (1998), "Dazed and Confused" (1993), and "American Graffiti" (1973). Throw in some elements and cast members from "Sleepover" (2004) along with the lyrical qualities of "Empire Records" (1995) and maybe even a little of "Sixteen Candles" (1984).

The only thing really unique about "Remember the Daze" is that Jess Manafort (the writer and director) is a relatively young woman. So the point-of-view is more female oriented; and the parts of the female characters are better written and much more believable that those of the males. Intuitively you would think that this would give the film a box office advantage over its predecessors. The many hot babes and some comedy, drug use, and misbehaving should attract a teen boy target audience and the more cerebral and sensitive dialogue should connect with girls of almost any demographic.

Unfortunately the wheels mostly fall off and the film fails to make the sentimental connection Manafort was hoping to achieve. It probably has something to do with too many stories being told, more than in the other films mentioned, and passing some vague tipping point where there are so many that the audience struggles to tap into any one particular character for point-of-view and strong identification purposes.

Also a problem was too much emphasis on the two weakest stories in the bunch; Heard's struggle to break up with her terminally depressed boyfriend (together they sap the energy from every scene in which they appear) and Patterson's struggle to break up with her terminally depressing boyfriend (who is physically and emotionally interchangeable with the assorted members of his moronic but staggeringly unfunny homeboy pack). Mostly you just end up feeling embarrassed for the poor folks tasked with playing such poorly written parts.

The film has some entertaining moments. Meester and Katrina Begin make the most of their limited screen time, and manage to inject a lot of badly needed comic relief. They represent a fusion of the Ron Howard - Richard Dreyfuss - Cindy Williams characters, struggling to sort out an upcoming geographical separation.

Stella Maeve ("Lightly" - I love that character name) and John Robinson ("Bailey) have a sweet and believable romance that is nicely sold by the way the two actors gently tease their roles. Each year in high school I recall romances where an incoming freshman girl pulled an older but less mature upperclassman out of his shell, but for some reason the dynamic has been neglected in films.

Even with the missteps already noted, Patterson is excellent in what turns out to be the biggest part in the production (after editing but probably not in the original script as she gets no billing on the main promotional material). This is essentially Jennifer Love Hewitt"s "Can't Hardly Wait" character, this time mostly played for laughs but not aggressively enough written so that the absurdist elements are not as effective as they could have been.

A distanced and largely silent guy (Charles Chen) with a still camera bookends the film; the quintessential class historian who participated in nothing but is destined to one day serve as the class' collective memory. They go out on an elaborate crane shot that goes up and into a second-story window to pan across a montage of his just developed photos. He also serves the Wolfman Jack role, with his constant presence a lyrical commentary and a way to bring unity to the disparate story elements.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.