La spirale infernale

Bad directing, bad writing, bad acting, bad characters, bad music. Honestly, the stupidity never stops in this pathetic excuse for a movie until the credits stop rolling. It is exactly what a 120 minute commercial against abusive college drinking would be like, made by people who have no experience in the subject at all other than their own paranoia. This is truly a hideous piece of work. I realize that there are many real problems that revolve around young people abusing many different kinds of substances. I went to college, I've lived in a college housing area, I've seen the real thing over and over again. However this film really has nothing enlightening to share about the problems of youth substance abuse. It really has nothing genuine to offer to the viewer at all. The most you will get out of it is a few laughs because of its sheer ridiculousness. Well perhaps if you are a fairly naive person, with little experience around this real problem, you may then buy into the stupidity of this movie and develop prejudices and paranoia about the reality of its subject. God help you! Definitely there are some things that happen in this film that do happen in reality, however they are just not done in a way that is authentic to real human beings. The characters are all stereotypical cartoons with no depth. Therefore the films situations have nothing thoughtful to offer to this issue, and that is the biggest reason why this movie stinks so badly. If you want to watch a quality film about young people with substance abuse issues, that is actually somewhere close to the authentic thing. Then watch 'Prozac Nation' or even 'Sid & Nancy', or something like that. Avoid this movie at all costs, unless you just want to laugh at something really fake and stupid. This film reminds me a good bit of the infamous old trash film, 'Tell Your Children (Reefer Madness)' because of its lack of real knowledge of the issue it presents, and also because it is driven 100% by paranoia. 'Tell Your Children' may just be the worst film ever made. Let me just say that this stinker really isn't much better. The same thing that could be said about, 'Tell Your Children', could also be said about this movie, and that is..."It is not so much a movie, but rather a preacher, preaching about that which they do not know.".

1.5/10

The movie title and the fact that this is a Lifetime movie, gives you the basics.

You know that this is a cheesy movie with a "made for TV" feel. However, if you enjoy those type of movies (like I do), you will most likely enjoy this flick as well.

As expected, there are a lot of unrealistic scenes. The first thing that jumped out at me, was how our main character is *startled* when SEEING a bottle of champagne. She literally jumps. I don't know who makes it to college without witnessing some underage drinking. Personally, I didn't drink until my 24th birthday, but I DID witness plenty of it in high school and college. Never SEEING people drink is very unrealistic.

Also, her Mother becomes suspicious when she calls her daughter at 2:30 in the afternoon and her daughter is taking a nap. I'm sorry, but is that really THAT crazy? Aren't college students allowed to nap? I remember taking many naps after cramming in the library (and being out late as well). I am a parent now, and I would not be scared if my daughter was napping while she was away at college. They really played that up.

Funny note: pay attention to the fraternity "Luau" party. The guy who asks her to dance - as he walks off to dance, he does the SILLIEST, most badly-staged dance I have ever seen. It literally made me laugh out loud, no joke! I think they also overdid the "binge" drinking. The timeline doesn't add up. I wouldn't call a college student getting drunk 3x's between September and January a "problem" drinker. I would call someone getting drunk nightly or weekly a "problem". But 3 times over the course of several months (esp. in college), is not that insane. Granted, they do show the drinking increasing as the school year progresses, but it still never shocked me.

Also, this entire movie is narrated by our main character - literally, the whole thing. It's very odd. It didn't bother me that much, but again, I think it would have been a little less cheesy without it.

They also have a WET T-SHIRT CONTEST WITH THEIR BIKINI TOPS ON UNDERNEATH THE WHITE T-SHIRTS!!!! They eventually take it off, but omg...funniest scene ever. At the beginning of the contest, the main character is sober and laughs at the girls who are doing the contest. At the end of the contest (apparently after a single drink) she is up on stage as well. So yea...apparently she went from stone-cold sober, to drunk and peeling her clothes off in a few minutes? Please.

Speaking of our main gal, she is painfully thin in this movie. She looks like she suffers from a possible eating disorder (another Lifetime movie perhaps..lol).

All in all, give this movie a shot if you like made-for-TV movies that are cheese ball. It is better than the last few LMN movies that I watched. I don't think males would like this one - it's definitely a chick movie, and definitely more of a comedy than drama.

6/10

This was a watchable enough TV movie in a train derailment sort of way. A Lifetime movie with a message. Actually it reminded me of those "after school specials" that were all the rage when I was growing up. Addictive but cheesy, over the top dramatizations of teens making bad decisions and then dealing with the consequences.

Here we follow promising track star and mama's girl Jessie Brenner as she heads off to college. Trying to fit in and be one of the cool kids she soon starts partying with her dorm-mate and before long slides into binge drinking and debauchery while lying to her mother about her constant partying and late hours. Promiscuity, car wrecks, topless internet videos, failing grades and general bad decisions soon follow.

Despite being a bit hard to take seriously, I enjoyed Nancy Travis as the Mum and Sara Paxton did a decent enough job as Jessie. Some of the party scenes were pretty hilarious and there were some continuity issues. I also found the ending predictable as Lifetime gives one last desperate attempt to drive the "bad drinking" message home to young and influencable viewers. 4/6/15

*Victoria BC as somewhere college town USA.

A good movie. Thats plain and simple. The comment I read about this not being realistic is silly. Obviously its a MOVIE so its painting it slightly dramatized. But, as a young woman in her early 20s myself, I have friends in college who have gone through a lot of the same things. Unfortunately, the money can come from mommy and daddy or from a side job. Its not hard to find a small part time job in a college town. I live near one and its always packed with the students working the restaurants and visiting friends. Getting alcohol is not difficult for a college student at all. I think this movie is a serious wake up call to any college freshman who says "that could never be me." Sadly, it could and its completely possible. I wont let the cat out of the bag in this but there are serious issues that can arise from drinking too much. A great idea and fabulous story line.

Jessie Brenner (Sara Paxton) is a shy track athlete and the first college student in her family. Her loving mother (Nancy Travis) is a single widow. Shanna (Chelsea Hobbs) is her new roommate. She joins Shanna's party life gaining confidence with alcohol. She is befriended by straight-arrow musician Colin. Shanna introduces her to hunky Keith who she loses her virginity to on the first date. It turns out that he has other girls. Her academics and track suffer. She's avoiding her mother until she visits. Shanna convinces her to party in San Diego where she joins a wet T-shirt contest. Her flashing gets on the internet and even her little sister Sadie is affected.

These kinds of movies used to be called afterschool specials. The writing is very broad and somewhat bland. The narration is bad. Everything is done without subtlety. Nevertheless, the movie is exactly what it was always suppose to be. Sara Paxton is a charming enough lead. It could be a lot worst.