Perfect High

I love this movie because it has the balls to show the real side of addiction. I cried because the acting felt so real. Yes, MOST all LM are the same but few hit home like this one did. As a former addict to pain pills I wish someone would have sat me down and MADE me watch this movie. I think this would be good movie for teens asking about peer pressure and drugs.

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 I like how Amanda kinda bonds with her younger brother, which is unique sort-say but still feels withdrawn and overdone before as this whole movie is.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".

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.

Depending on the subject matter, I like Lifetime movies, but this one was corny even for them. The underlying premise is somewhat believable, but overall the movie seems unrealistic. It has some dramatic scenes, but they're not handled well so it comes off as melodramatic and awkward. Lifetime has made movies of similar content that were much better quality. Also, I get that social media is a major part of a teenager's life, but you can't even read what they're texting/posting and it seems awkwardly done. I don't think drug addicts constantly post about their use on social media. They could've integrated it that much better

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.