Review: Before I Fall


Zoey Deutch is part of a bitchy high-school clique alongside the more overtly mean Halston Sage (hateful to a frankly rather unconvincing degree). Hoping to lose her virginity by the end of the night, things don’t go anywhere near according to Deutch’s plan. In fact, after a nasty confrontation at a party with a much-bullied lesbian teen (Elena Kampouris), Deutch ends up in a fatal car crash. Only she wakes up…and it’s the same morning all over again. Deutch pretty quickly realises she’s on a loop and in order to get out of it, something about the day needs to change, but what? Medalion Rahimi and Cynthy Wu play the other two mean girls, whilst Jennifer Beals and a truly old-looking Nicholas Lea play Deutch’s parents.



Does a mopey, ‘mean girls’ teen drama version of “Groundhog Day” sound like a good idea to you? If so…you’re wrong. It’s a terrible idea, as this dreadfully dull 2017 film from director Ry Russo-Young (“Nobody Walks” with the underrated Olivia Thirlby) and screenwriter Maria Maggenti (writer-director of the quirkily titled indie lesbian romance from the 90s “The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love”) proves for 100 minutes or so. The film offers up a “Losin’ It” storyline from a female perspective, which is potentially interesting. So it’s a shame that the plotline is mostly kept to the sides whilst it riffs on Harold Ramis for 100 minutes instead. The gorgeous cinematography by Michael Fimognari (“The Lazarus Effect”, “Ouija: Origin of Evil”) was all that kept me awake here.



It’s funny, in “Groundhog Day”, an arsehole (played perfectly by Bill Murray) has to relive the same day over and over until he gets it right. Even then, he’s still kind of the same arsehole, but we don’t care because he’s entertaining and the film is brilliantly done in comedic fashion. In this non-comedic, teen version…yeah, nothing works here. I kept shouting ‘Stop being a cow and you’ll wake up in a different day, you tit!’. I never did that during “Groundhog Day”, because I was having too much fun and the basic premise was fairly fresh at the time. Hell, as much as Murray barely changed by the end of the film, this girl doesn’t change a bit. In fact, at times she comes across even bitchier than when she starts. When a character says to her ‘This isn’t you’, I thought…actually yeah, it is. It’s exactly her. And it’s a massive problem with the film, because it gives you no one worth latching onto. Hell, I didn’t even find the bitchy behaviour remotely plausible, either. Teenagers are dicks, but the filmmakers and performers never convinced me that someone would act the way these particular dicks do. Meanwhile, I’m all for characters learning from their mistakes (even when forced to), is it really fair to make a teenage girl choose a very specific romantic partner as part of the bargain? For an adult, it’s not something that would occur to me, but for a teenager…it feels a bit icky, really. Yes, she makes the decision herself, but is it because it’s her heart’s desire or does she just want to beat the curse put upon her? It really is icky, I’m afraid. Speaking of icky, when you learn that a lot of the dilemma in the film harkens back to a childhood bed-wetting problem…you just want to roll your eyes. Really? Bed-wetting? Also, do you remember the point in “Groundhog Day” where Murray has finally just lost his shit and stops giving a fuck anymore? Zoey Deutch’s version of that involves her wearing mascara or some shit. Yeah, this stupid, slow-arse movie and I were never gonna be friends, and as much as I think Zoey Deutch (daughter of Lea Thompson) is a star waiting to happen, even she couldn’t make this character remotely tolerable for me.



Pretty but mopey teen drama version of “Groundhog Day” features likeable actors playing wholly detestable characters. It tries to attach a profundity to the inanity of teenage-dom, and fails miserably in this endeavour. Miserable being the operative word. With an added sense of humour, this could’ve been something. Without it, it’s nothing. “Before I Fall” obviously means ‘before I fall asleep’, and it might just as well be referring to the audience member struggling to get any entertainment value here.



Rating: D

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more