A Girl Like Her

Whoaaa...this was MIND BLOWING! It is based on a true story about a girl who was relentlessly bullied at school and couldn't take it any more. She and her friend filmed the bullying before she tried to take her own life. THIS SHOULD BE COMPULSORY in every school without preaching. I DARE you to not be floored!!! The acting was brilliant and the documentary style really well done. It gave a very real effect and made you feel so much more and connect with the characters. I don't know why this hasn't been more popular or well known than what it is but it deserves every star. I will definitely watch it again and tell people about it.

Saw this movie by chance - was looking for something to watch, opened up Netflix, and it was on the main screen as a suggested title. With a cast of mostly unknowns, I wasn't expecting much. But I was surprised.

The acting was mostly very good. Lexi Ainsworth was very believable as the bullied Jessica. I cried along with her, as someone who was also bullied in high school. (To a lesser extent, and before cell phones and social media were really a thing yet.)

For the most part, the story was believable and moving. My only problem with it was that it reinforces the false assumption that bullies usually have a difficult home life. This was the kind of information that was generally believed to be true back when I was in school (graduated high school in 2002), but we know a lot more today. Most bullies come from good families and have good lives.

By the end of the film, I felt like we were supposed to feel a certain amount of sympathy for Avery. But despite how things were portrayed - her life was really not that bad at all. I felt that a lot of things were exaggerated.

Avery wasn't bullying Jessica because her parents fought sometimes and her mom was a little controlling, she was bullying Jessica because she was a cruel, mean, heartless, narcissistic brat. No one with a conscience could treat another person that way. Period. No sympathy for bullies.

I attended a Catholic school and was bullied by a gang of girls for 6 years in elementary school.. Punched, pushed, kicked in the school yard in an all nun school in the 1960's. How the nuns didn't know what was going on amazes me now at 60! I look back and call them monsters, they should be outed by everyone, end the snitch stigma related by gangsta's, and show this film in every middle and high school. No one should be tormented by these monsters daily, if you see something, say something should be the tag line in our schools! Apologies, sorry are all too late for many of us, and how we can tolerate this behavior ...just shocking!

I was a little disheartened reading some of the movie reviews for this feature and the overall metascore. This was a powerful indie flick that was financed through crowdsourcing on a shoestring budget. It does not have big names and doesn't need them. The kids play their parts professionally. The raw emotion is there and for anyone who has been on the receiving end of the emotional beat down that happens here, this movie should hit a nerve. It did with me. The only downsides to it are the shaky-cam effect that comes with a faux documentary. It's a bit heavy-handed, so to speak, but tolerable. Avery's Mom is a little over the top in the crazy Mom department, but I'm sure this type exists. At least it does on reality TV. Avery's Dad is a doormat and gets stepped on most of the scenes, but I don't think he truly got hurt when the mother berated him for not washing his hands after using the bathroom. I think there could have been something more compelling in that argument to side us against the Mother in addition to her other character flaws. This movie will affect you, director Amy Weber grabs you from the very beginning and draws you into the disturbing side of high school cliques. It had me choked up many times, angry other times, sympathetic most of the time and I left knowing I was right when I thought this movie had potential to make a difference. Go see it, bring your pre-teen and/or teen.

I heard about this movie on Facebook and needed to see it right away. Something about it and the description just drew me in, and my curiosity just made me jump on it.

A movie from different angles of people who have their own cameras is definitely an interesting way of visually seeing the movie. There are other movies that do this extremely effectively too, like End of Watch the cop movie.

The story was fantastic and I felt it made a lot of great points. It will certainly speak to the bullied about what it feels like to be alone and not feel like they can talk to anyone about it and that no one could understand it.

It is a dark movie. It was not afraid to go to some surprisingly dark places. Maybe even too dark for me at times. There were parts troubling enough that I had to look away.

I would recommend this movie, but be warned that it is troubling and may not go the directions that you want it to.