Love That Boy

This is a lovely film about an overachieving girl named Phoebe who is weeks away from graduating from university. She has done almost everything from "foraging for wild mushrooms" to getting a "kayak certification", but has never had a boyfriend.

This is not by any means your average cheesy romantic comedy. It is modest in visual style, yet perfectly appropriate. Attention has been paid to Phoebe's many retro outfits, to a great script, and to perfect direction to the actors whose manner perfectly matches the tone of the film.

This film will leave you enchanted, content, and smiling. Andrea Dorfman has already created a signature style between this and her last film "Parsley Days".

Phoebe is an overachieving college student, with a geeky strange personality. Her tastes are unusual, so she doesn't really fit into college life very well. Her goals in life are written down on pieces of paper, and she crosses them off as she achieves them; so really her ultimate goal in life is to achieve her goals in life. She has a roommate Robin who semi-tolerates her, but even Robin has her limits and eventually grows frustrated by her pompousness. One day Robin just decides to pack up and leave to go back to her home -- she'd basically rather be anywhere but couped up with Phoebe. Robin even feels that Phoebe is a bit obsessed with her; perhaps Phoebe is; Robin implies that Phoebe needs a boyfriend. Getting a boyfriend immediately becomes Phoebe's next entry in her goal-in-life list.

Unfortunately, Phoebe is a bit ill-equipped for this task. She meets guys randomly, things go well briefly, and then all of a sudden she decides to show them how much smarter she is than them and things don't progress any further. She has a friend in the 14-year old neighbor boy Frazier across the street, who she can be her natural self with. He doesn't mind her showing how much smarter she is than him, because he is 14 and she is 21, and so he already expects her to be smarter than him. But he's also pretty smart himself, somewhat wise for a 14 year old. Frazier has a younger sister Bug who provides a frantically geeky comedy relief -- she's more geeky than Phoebe. Phoebe asks Frazier to help her take her kayak classes (another one of her life goals), and a bond develops between them.

Meanwhile, Robin the ex-roommate decides to become a roommate again. Robin has had her own little misadventure across Canada during her trip home, so she decides to come back. When she gets back, she finds out about the little friendship/relationship that's developed between Frazier and Phoebe. So she decides to inject a little reality into Phoebe's life by letting her know that in the real-world 21 year-olds aren't supposed to date 14 year-olds. Phoebe says they aren't dating, but Robin says it still looks like they're dating. This sets up a moral dilemma in Phoebe that she wasn't even aware that she should be feeling up until that point.

How the movie ends, I won't tell you, check it out. I give it a 9/10.

This film was absolutely adorable. The gist of the story is that Phoebe is a 21-year old girl about to graduate from college. She has a long list of things she wants to accomplish before she graduates in hopes of receiving a special award. She drags her roommate along with her for all the of things she does, and after a while, her roommates gets so annoyed that she leaves. When her roommate leaves, she mentions that Phoebe has never had a boyfriend. So, she adds this to her list of things she needs to accomplish, and she goes about it in a very amusing way. At first, Phoebe is not very likeable, as she is so meticulous about everything, but she turns out to be a very charming and likeable character. The acting, particularly by Nadia Litz (Phoebe)and Adrien Dixon (Frazer) was fantastic, and the direction was very good. Overall, the film was well-paced and interesting. It is very enjoyable, and is the type of film that anyone could watch. It was funny and lighthearted while maintaining a seriousness to it. If you are lucky enough to get the chance to see it, I would recommend you do so, as it is absolutely charming. 9/10

Phoebe (Nadia Litz) is a 21 year old obsessively overachieving student. Her widely divergent interests are in her exceedingly quirky list of things to do before graduation from college. Her overbearing nature drives her one and only friend away. When the friend points out that she has never even had a boyfriend, she promptly puts it on the list. However, she's way too clueless to act like a normal human being. Then he starts talking to the 14 year old neighbor boy hired to mow her lawn. Meanwhile her friend is having a horrible time backpacking with a guy she met on the plane.

It's a quirky girl indie filmed in Halifax, Canada. Nadia Litz has a bit of charm. She's appealing enough to keep the movie interesting. I think they could probably get to the boy part of the movie faster, and get a better boy to play the part. The dialog and interactions between them is kind of stiff and awkward. If there is a good movie in this, it has to come from these two characters. I just don't think they have chemistry. The one notable actor is Ellen Page. She plays a neighbor kid who keeps trying to seduce the boy.

You wouldn't think that a movie in which an adult woman and a teenage boy flirt with romance could be described as sweet but sweet is exactly what this movie is.

Phoebe (Nadia Litz, whose baby face helps to undercut the creepiness of the tale), is about to graduate university (which would make her roughly 21). She's a total type A, obsessing over making valedictorian, piling on extra curriculars and emotionally suffocating her roommate and best friend (only friend) Robin. Eventually Robin cracks under the pressure of being Phoebe's best friend and plus one to everything. She tells Phoebe off, mentioning in a list of complaints that, among other things, Phoebe has never had a boyfriend. Phoebe is embarrassed but also decides to approach this as an unsocialized type-A would and adds getting a boyfriend to her list of things to do. After a date goes wrong she ends up hanging out with Frazer (Adrien Dixon) her 14 year old neighbour who she pays to mow her lawn. Frazer is actually impressed by Phoebe's knowledge and the two end up growing closer and closer.

The film definitely toes the line about coming across as icky, but Dorfman and her co-writer Jennifer Deyell handle the material well and keep it just innocent enough and just awkward enough so that it never crosses over into full on creepiness.

It's also a super low-budget film but this somehow adds to the cartoonishness and sweetness of the movie.