Perfect High

This is not super deep or nuanced commentary on substance abuse--this is the classic "fall of the all-star athlete" with contemporary dress and social media in the background. It does highlight the situation of teen athletes getting on the painkillers after sports injuries, but this movie was clearly made for entertainment value and not to preach any message deeper than "careful with those Vicodin and never do heroin."

I see some reviewers seem to report strong emotional resonance from the movie.. I just didn't feel that, and it's not because I haven't lost any friends to drugs. The film's exploration of fake friends, teen partying, parents difficulty relating or understanding etc. Are all well executed, but again this is definitely a movie for TV fun--one that you can apparently construe some personal meaning from, too! I just liked it as a Lifetime movie.

At Lakewood High, lead dance troupe member Amanda (Bella Thorne) is part of the selfie obsessed generation. She dislocates her knee and is prescribed hydrocodone. Riley wants a friendly handout. She starts going out with Riley's brother Carson and soon she's pulled into Riley's drug world. She spirals out of control.

Bella Thorne works better as the mean girl. This is a scared-straight afterschool special movie of the week. It hits most of the standard drug tropes. Some are cheesier than others. It's not particularly good nor bad. I do appreciate the misdiagnosis by her mother as an eating disorder but by the end, she's a little slow. This is not breaking any new grounds. It travels very familiar roads.

First off let me get this out of the way. Drug movies are one of my favorite genres. Lifetime movies aren't always the best but when they have good story lines, good actors, and good writing they can be a good time. This is the story a teenage girl who after getting injured spirals out of control first on Rx drugs and then heroin. I am not exactly in the age range so I don't recognize any of the main actors but they all played their parts well especially Bella Thorne who played the main character. This of course is a Lifetime drug movie so don't expect any award winning material but it is on the high (no pun) end of what the network puts out and it tells a good story of a group of friends spinning out of control. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good Lifetime movie or anyone who likes a good drug movie. This is both.

Perfect High revolves around Amanda, played by Bella Thorne (the one impressive performance), a typical high-school dancer who engages herself with a group of people and soon becomes a drug addict. Life around her starts collapsing, but she cannot help it.

Firstly, the film revolves about a concept that has been overdone a million-times before, and it is no surprise this film is not getting the attention that it anticipates. Frankly enough, this film seems to be going nowhere with its premise, and indeed it doesn't; it is by the numbers teen melodrama that just seems to have an understatement about how social status affects a teen's life, and how everyone is pursuing fame and whatnot. However, I felt nauseated by the fact that the characters in this film are unlikable, except for Amanda (and not all the times). I like how Amanda kinda bonds with her younger brother, which is unique sort-say but still feels withdrawn and overdone before as this whole movie is.

I can't help it but see that this is a disappointing film, and it lived up to my low expectations weirdly enough; a movie should surpass or disappoint, but this movie was just what I expected it to be: which is a nothing movie, with empty gaps that might have been filled up with twisted ideas, yet the writers to the film decided to dedicate the it to its good cause, and when movies choose style over substance (or in this case, being a shameless Ad campaign to raise awareness), it should not have been a movie in the first place, a could see this as an impressive 2 - minutes feature to raise awareness. And that is it for this film, it is not "Perfect" nor "High".

I had this on in the background while going about my day, but something in the dialogue made me pay closer attention. This is NOT your everyday teen fluff piece. It's dark and gritty and real. It slowly builds the story of opiate addiction from innocently getting hooked on oxy's after a painful injury, to the partying that new addicts enjoy, to the resulting reality of getting really sick from withdrawal and the search for ever stronger drugs leading to heroin use and heroin addiction. I don't want to give away anything more but if you happen to see this in your tv listings, you should definitely watch it.