User reviews

I'm gonna keep this spoiler-free as I really want to speak to potential viewers BUT I will mark clearly at the very end some spoilers so that you can avoid it. But I wanted to cover that bit a little.

So, I gave this a chance despite the low rating as I don't really trust IMDB ratings anymore. I'm really glad I did. This turned out to be a nuanced, complex, and interesting film. I only discovered afterwards that the 22 year old young woman who played the lead also co-wrote it, directed it, and produced and/or wrote most of the songs in it. She is someone to watch as it's so surprising to me that somebody so young could get across such complex ideas.

What I loved is there is no Bad Guy/Good Guy-everyone is just human, with good qualities and bad. I don't think the trailer conveyed that. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered which some have complained about, but I still find it satisfying as Miss Shephard gave us enough clues that we can fill it in. Many audiences today prefer not to have to think and ponder and use their imagination, they just want stories with simple plots that tell them everything. I found it wonderful. To wrap up, give this a chance!! Especially if you enjoy unusual indie movies.

SPOILERS NEXT. LOOK AWAY IF YOU DONT WANT TO SEE!

****

I loved this ending, I really did. Those last few scenes weave together perfectly. The way it ended with her teacher was fantastic. He showed respect for her and it was obvious on her face that that meant the world to her. She felt valuable. And we are left reminded that even people who make very very poor choices, can have moments of maturity and kindness. Lovely film!

The girls are attractive; the drama teacher is not. Yet both of the hysterical, psychotic HS girls want him. None of the characters are likable, relatable, or even tolerable. I gave up emotional attachment to the film after the first half. I just let them play it out; and get what they deserved. By the end, I was hoping it would all blow up. But then, it didn't. It didn't do anything at all.

I want to appreciate to Quinn Sheppard. She has very great job. Director, writer, Actress, and lyricist for the soundtrack. Other actors really great for their acting. But, for the story, little bit confusing for me. It's good movie.

I watched this with mixed expectations. On the one hand, it has a relatively low IMDB rating. But it also has a high score on Rotten Tomatoes.

I must say the movie exceeded my expectations. I found some parts of the film slightly disturbing, but I felt the ending was able to really bring the different elements together.

From what I can tell, the ending confused a lot of people. But it seemed relatively straightforward to me. I liked that it was a hopeful ending and I liked where the 3 main characters ended up, as per my reading of the ending.

Overall, it had more depth than I initially gave it credit for. A definite recommendation from me.

American movies typically fail when they want to be edgy and transformative about the subject matter. However, except for the rare film such as Kids (1995), these movies fail to have the courage to deliver on edginess and end up merely teasing edginess.

The positive aspects of the movie. Nadia Alexander plays the ultimate mean girl. I hope her career takes off from this point. Quinn Shepherd does great as a dowdy student who gains confidence gaining some degree of agency as the movie progresses.

If the movie hadn't advertised itself as edgy I would have liked it more. It did and then it didn't deliver. With European movies becoming more explicit, American movies are becoming more PG. Quinn Shepherd wrote and directed the movie and made the decision that she would not ask her actors do to anything more telling than appearing in a bra. Understandable after all the gratuitous scenes usually involving only women. However, the movie is advertised as edgy and transformative when neither the story nor its presentation is either. The top review says that this is an amazing debut film when it is only a very competent Lifetime movie. See it but understand going in what it is and is not.

I didn't know until the movie was over just how many times the name of the star Quinn Shepard would appear in the credits. So a lot of the credit for how the movie turned out should go to her, and not just for her fine performance. When she played the part of the "Crucible" character, she was quite good. In fact, too good, but I don't want to give too much away. And when she was merely the high school student, she managed to display quite a range, not just the disturbed and insecure girl shown at the movie's start. Sometimes she showed confidence and sometimes she was happy. And sometimes she was terrified and sometime quite sad. And she wore a lot of outfits, one or two somewhat puritanical like her character.

That's just the character of Abigail. But then she directed and wrote too? Not quite an Oscar caliber production, but this girl is young enough to play a teenager. Amazing! Also, she was responsible for a lot of the music. Given my musical taste, that's not something to brag about, but the teen girls who are probably the movie's target audience must surely like what she did.

Nadia Alexander played the nearly ideal mean girl. Usually angry and dressed like a rebel, with loud "music" blasting to drown out the rest of the world. And she likes skimpy outfits, which will make one possible target audience happy. Still, she has a vulnerable side and shows that quite well in several scenes. Understandably, this is a girl who doesn't want to show that about her. And she has a good reason for her anger.

Sarah Mezzanotte is another bad girl, but not angry. Just trying to be a friend. Those who don't support her friend can't be friends with her. Well, maybe they can, but only if it benefits Sophie. I really was convinced Sophie was trying to show concern, but with all the scheming and lying going on, who knows?

Tessa Albertson isn't really a bad girl. She just wants to be liked by her friends. But are they really her friends? And she too gets to be vulnerable.

Luke Slattery is nice enough or trying to convince people he is. He is involved in real or pretend romance with so many girls, can you blame him for being confusing? He is likable though.

Owen Campbell is a kind of mean guy who is also likable in a way, but more snarky than his friend.

Chris Messina is the teacher who may or may not be getting too close to a particularly talented student who really wants to learn not just acting, but everything that goes into theater. He's likable enough and good at the role in "The Crucible".

I have said a lot of good things, but other than the fact this movie is a great effort from a young person, it wouldn't be called outstanding. It mostly sticks close to the teen movie formula with bad girls, bullying, lying, drinking, implied sex, drugs and so on. There is an amazing plot twist late, though given some reviews and summaries I have read since I watched, I now wonder how much I missed and whether the development was really unexpected.

I did see this on broadcast TV and based on what I have read, some scenes may have been cut out completely. I do know a lot of bad language was removed. Although in the version I saw, the censors somehow missed one use of the F-word that might be missed if someone is not paying attention, since it is in the background. And in Ellie's diary, if you freeze the video (I record everything) and read the parts that are not what you're supposed to be reading, the s-word is there. I think it goes without saying this is far from family-friendly. For those who like it, the cheerleaders are shown changing. And in their uniforms dancing.

I've already mentioned the music isn't my taste, but maybe for teen girls, this is what is considered good. Rap is there for those who like that sort of thing.

If you don't mind yet another teen movie which seems to be better than average, I think this might please you.

This isn't really my type of movie but I watched it only because it was filmed at my high school. Pretty solid film overall as long as you can get around the fact that this isn't how high school kids act at all, at least when it comes to the corny bullying of Shepard's character. That being said, I think Quinn Shepard has a lot of potential as a director and writer. Interested to see what she'll do next.

An ok little movie. Fair plot, acting, direction. All a bit over the top and unrealistic really. Annoying, stupid characters.

"Blame" treads on some risky territory, but Quinn Shephard handles it with maturity and nuance far beyond her 22 years. The acting is solid from all involved. Kudos to Chris Messina for working with this young filmmaker and portraying a man who is certainly flawed, but is not evil.

Some reviewers have thrown around the word "pedophilia" and I suggest they look up the word in the dictionary. While the relationship between the teacher and the student is inappropriately close, it is mostly an emotional affair between 2 lonely souls.

Abigail Grey (Quinn Shephard) reluctantly goes back to school after some troubles. She is bullied by mean cheerleader Jennifer (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and her group. They call her Sybil and slut. New drama teacher Jeremy Woods (Chris Messina) assigns the Arthur Miller play 'The Crucible' to the class. He notices the bullying and gives an important role to Abigail relegating Jennifer as the understudy.

This starts with a bit of Heather. It's going on a predictable but still compelling path. Then it goes away from the path. First, there is the classroom scene where Abigail turns the table on Jennifer. It leaves Abigail as an unreliable character. It would work if it fully commits but it simply left me questioning her with no resolution. Next is the journal entry. I would think any girl would take a picture with her phone. The rumor could spread and the plot moves forward. Instead, that plot sorta stalls until the climax. Also the climax introduces something which is left hanging. Overall, there is a lot of interesting work from young new filmmaker Quinn Shephard but it's not quite sharp enough with too many loose threads and not enough payoff.

So stupid.....just as it starts to get interesting - the movie abruptly ends

Was good I had to deduct points for wholes. Acting was good. They left wholes that makes you assume. The ending has my mind thinking it was one of 2 scenarios.

I liked the tender, intimate drama as it unfolded between Abigail and Jeremy. As much as one can criticize the apparent taboo behavior, one can also sense the nuance of it being a tenderly sad story of a broken girl. The characters feel alive, and the dialogue feels punchy and realistic. Despite the occasional glimpses of budget constraints, and the un-filmed/cut scenes, the drama is tangible enough to make the central characters interesting. Though the ending abuse revelation by Melissa seems to emerge out of nowhere, at first glance, it makes good sense in hindsight and I think credit goes to Quinn to make simple gestures by Melissa's father, filled with nuance to hint at deeper subtext, and I really liked that this filmmaker nailed it so young. So that's cool. And I liked how chill the drama felt. I just wish the director was funded well to let some scene gel well. On to my next film of this director!

The story is just not connected ,, the script is scattered all over , i believe it was a total waste of one and a half hour.

The story is repetitive and not has one single element of originality, and the screenplay was not engaging at all.

As for the cast , i really love Chris Messina back from The Mindy Project, but now he was like WTH !!! , the other girls were over-acting so you can easily see through the whole scene.

Final thought, Just don't watch it , 3 stars for effort i think.

After an hour, I wasn't enthralled anymore. The film went off on a lot of tangents (such as showcasing the preppy high schoolers' drinking/sex scenes or the scenes in the cafeteria and the Homecoming dance).

The core of the film should be to tap into the mind of Abigail and the teacher, to figure out what is missing in their lives and why they seek one another. I felt that Abigail's backstory was limited and there's not a full rationale of why her classmates antagonize and insult her. And we also don't see why the teacher is distant towards his girlfriend.

It's really a shame because the actress for Abigail (who also serves as the film's director) does a prime job here.

Well, I'm blown away! I was binge-watching trailers on youtube and stumbled on this title. then I decided to go for it because, ya know, seems promising.

and all I could say now is just, wow. I can't believe the lead actress is also the director and writer and the producer herself. like, this is great stuff. and she's still so young. I'm finding myself thoroughly enjoying this movie.

really looking forward to another Shepherd works in the future.

This film purports to show high school students, 14-18; in fact they are little more than foul mouthed creatures from the warped mind of Quinn Shephard. I was going to note how many times the "F" word is screeched but I couldn't count fast enough.

The film highlights the cheap, crass and clearly illegal relationship between Shephard's character and her teacher as if it's, well, you know, common place.

Shephard claims, "I am praised for my ability to capture High School in this film." No, she doesn't. It's a sordid view of jaded deviants. It's nasty is what it is.

Any adult who would dare to show this to REAL High school students should be arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

It glorifies pedophilia. its predictable and boring. a cliche. not worth watching.

Pleeeeeeease be over.

Why are 20 somethings playing teens !!

Dumb film.

The trailer is extremely misleading first off (.) Had this film been presented in the way it should have, it would have had a better review. Yes it's a slow burn, yes it's a coming of age film, but the content is so much more. In a digital age we are all guilty of looking for instant gratification and scandal. We sometimes forget life it's self is messy. Every love ballot or tragedy was not written by Shakespeare rather a real person desperately trying to navigate the muddy waters the surround us all.