As Cool as I Am

This is at tops a TV movie designed for a Sunday afternoon when you have nothing better to do. It does stray along way from Pete Fromm's book which is considerably more intense and describes the falling apart of a family in greater detail than the film. The performances were OK, James Marsden and Claire Danes gave below par performances compared to their other work. Sarah Bolger carried the role of Lucy off nicely but for obvious reason didn't commit to the character 100%. For those interested it might be worth doing a search for a Matthew J. Clark short called 'Dry Rain' based on a short story by Pete Fromm.

If you do enjoy the film it is very much worth reading the book which goes into many of the implied topics in the film in greater detail.

The story unfolds about a family living in suburbs of a major town in United States, having husband and wife and their daughter. Father being a lumberjack stays away from home for the majority of the time. He is from the old school and thinks that family is a bond which should remain intact at all times whatever the circumstances may be. The mother who works at a local advertising agency is often dressed up way too bold unlike a mother has to be dressed. The daughter is free bird who has a boy friend since her childhood and she remained focuses on him. During the time the father is at home everybody restricts their normal routine and stay close to him and once he leaves for his job they return to their normal lives. The mother who got married at an early age still thinks that she is a unmarried woman and likes to screwed around to her follow employee's, and she dressed up in a fashion that she is a teenager which she is not supposed to do. The daughter in the later part of the movie started changing her boy friend and started to screw around like her mother. The father one day caught the daughter while she was making love to his boy friend tries to hit her boy friend who in fact was a strong guy over powered the father and hit him. The daughter tries to console dad who slap her on her face and left back to work as an escape route. The mother found her college boy friend and ran away with him to Mexico. The daughter joins a café and started showing cooking lessons. Till now! It was about the movie and their role the actors played but in real life in Pakistan, it does not hold true as depicted in the movie. The bond of family is not so weak that if husband is working in some other city or he is working late it means that the wife should start acting like a prostitute and should be screwing and flirting around and the daughter is screwing entire class for that matter. Though the acting and setting was perfect and I gave this movie 9 out of 10.

7.1 of 10. As teen girl films go this year, I prefer The Truth About Emanuel (2013). By comparison, this is clearly an attempt to do another teen girl perspective film. In many ways, it succeeds in addressing important issues while still creating something amusing and sexy teens can relate to. Unfortunately, it tries to do too much and cover too much ground.

One of the many good artistic things it does that is often failed in other films is having the lead character speak in the background for added context. Here, it's done the way it should be, like hearing the character's thoughts and not trying to use it to tell the story.

Some other films this reminds me of and those who enjoy this (or those) will enjoy: Drool (2009), Rocket Science (2007), Snow Angels (2007), Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Teeth (2007), Poker House (2008), Precious (2009), and Kids (1995).

"As Cool as I Am" is a well-intentioned coming-of-age story, but it seriously lacks focus. The story jumps from one thread to the next, back-and-forth between the main characters' romantic relationships, all with little clarity, understanding of character motivation or overall narrative drive. In amongst this messy storytelling are a few prominent moments: a rape scene, and a moment where a neglectful father slaps his daughter. Both of these jarring moments seem to be almost immediately forgotten about, lacking sufficient follow-up or indication of how the events affect the lives and psyche of the main characters. It's irresponsible of the filmmakers to raise sensitive themes like rape and abuse and not take the time to properly deal with or resolve them.

I've become an increasingly avid Claire Danes fan since 2011 when I became obsessive over "Homeland" – the superb TV drama she headlines – and her involvement was the main factor drawing me to "Cool", her first feature film performance in five years. Sadly it has to be said that if this is the best script Danes can find to draw her back to the big screen, she'd be better off sticking with the box.

Unfortunately for fans like myself, "Cool" doesn't offer Danes (who only gets a sketchy outline of a character at best, and is relegated to the sidelines most of the film) much of an opportunity to stretch her considerable acting muscles. Her performance actually falls flat during the major cathartic, emotional scenes in the final third. The star of the film is Sarah Bolger, who is in almost every scene of the film and leaves a real impression. She's the most genuine thing about the whole project, and her major emotional moments ring true – she even sells her main character's culinary interests which are otherwise undercooked (excuse the pun).

"Cool" has a distinctly unfinished feel. Characters (particularly Danes') make utterly baffling decisions toward the end of the film which are never resolved, and far too many threads are simply left dangling by the final frame. This sub-par, shoulder shrug of an ending leaves a feeling of redundancy around the whole film. What was the point? And another question that just has to be asked while I'm at it: what on Earth is the meaning of the film's title?

"If memory is malleable then the future is too." Lucy is a sixteen year old girl who is too smart for her own good. She spends her free time learning how to cook and hanging out with her friend Kenny. Her mother (Danes) and father (Marsden) had her when they were young and not ready for that responsibility. Now with her dad gone all but 4 times a year and her mom acting like a kid herself Lucy is left to discover life for herself. This is a movie that again proves my point that a movie can be entertaining and worth watching involving great acting rather then special effects. This is a movie along the line of What Maisie Knew only involving an older child rather then a 6 year old. Parents that should not have been allowed to have children and a child who is more mature then the parents. You really root for Lucy the entire time and by the time the end come you feel extremely sorry for her as well as relief. That is a hard combination to achieve but that's what great writing and acting does. Overall, a great movie that is pretty depressing but I recommend this. I give it a B+.