Nação dos Sonhos

Whoa movie, you are sort of a hot mess! But I loved you for your style and your funny dialogue and the way you made me feel dirty and innocent at the same time. The acting was mainly very strong. But Kat, you should try to emote just a little more. However. I respect that you let yourself be such a bitch, and then opened up and made me feel for you. For awhile there you worried me, but you redeemed yourself nicely. Josh Lucas, anytime, anywhere, I'm yours. Blonde hair or not. Reece Thompson, I don't know who you are, but you have promise. In fact, I'd say you were the highlight here (not counting Josh Lucas's abs). In summary, I'm giving this movie a solid 8/10. Next time clean up your act a little and I'll give you an A plus.

Kat Dennings's stunning performance just blew me away as a city girl who ends up in a strange small town for a year when "everything happened". She's funny and wry, and the next thing you know she breaks your heart. There's a lovely balance in this movie of humor and lyricism and incredible tension, and Dennings is just one of a number of unforgettable characters. Josh Lucas sneaks up on you with another original performance -- he's charming and despicable and hilarious. But the real surprise is Reece Thompson, who I'd never seen before, as a high school kid muddling his way through grief and first love. The movie looks amazing and the writing sings.

Let me start by saying I hadn't heard of this film until my girlfriend rented it (she's a film student at NYU). And judging by the cover and the title I had low expectations. So I was surprised to find a weird, funny, strangely beautiful movie wedged between the usual coming-of-age shenanigans. In a lot of ways it reminded me of my favorite writer, Haruki Murakami, in that the setting was banal but the plot (and I use that word loosely) was brimming with odd visual non sequiturs and tangents that were occasionally left dangling. There's a girl who has an affair with her teacher, a burning cloud of smoke, a killer in a white suit, a series of car crashes, kids who smoke everything in their kitchen to see what will get them stoned...the list goes on and on. But the thing is, it almost all works! It's almost like magic realism, albeit in a more grim, apocalyptic setting. So if you're someone who likes linear films, or films that follow all the rules, you'll probably not like this. But if you're like me and you get bored of seeing the same thing over and over, this feels pretty fresh. It definitely entertained me and stuck with me -- especially the ending. Oh yeah, and don't pay attention to the box. This movie has nothing in common with Juno or Donnie Darko (which is sci-fi, for Christ's sake). I have a feeling people latched on to that comment and let it color how they saw the story. So to sum up, I wouldn't recommend this movie to everyone, but I was moved by it and enjoyed its shaggy poetic qualities and erratic twists and turns.

10/10 Lee

This is just one more in a long line of boring, filmed-in-BC, movies-with-a-message. Don't believe all the four- and five-star fake reviews from the cast and crew; it is formulaic garbage. Like everything else coming out of BC these days, it uses one has-been actor (Andie MacDowell) and a bunch of 25- and 28-year-olds, playing teenagers. There is not one believable scene in the entire movie, and - like every other "message movie" "stalker movie" or "murderer movie" out of BC - it is 99% talk talk talk.

Examples. Wanna get your actors to appear edgy? Portray them hotboxing in a stranger's dad's van. Wanna see what the term "phoning in your performance" really means? Watch Andie MacDowall, who very obviously did this one only for the money.

Typical CBC/Lifetime boring movie, made by too many actors and crew who spent too much time hotboxing and not enough time writing, directing, filming and acting. If you keep waiting for this movie to get better, trust me; it never does.

Caroline Wexler (Kat Dennings) moves with her father to a small town. Thurston Goldberg (Reece Thompson) falls for the new girl. She has sex with her teacher Mr. Anderson (Josh Lucas). Ms. Budge (Rachel Blanchard) is the health teacher.

Kat Dennings rules this picture. She overpowers almost everybody in every scene she's in. She has an amazing scene in the girl's bathroom. If there is a problem, it's there's too many side stories going on. Much of it is used to create atmosphere. There's a serial killer roaming the town, and there's an industrial fire burning on the outskirts. Much of it is unnecessary and serves no purpose. Kat Dennings and the teen drama is more than enough.