Cliché

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2012)

Mostly a trite and clichéd high school picture. Logan Lerman is miscast as a moody high school freshman (who looks like he' at least 16) who befriends a group of seniors (Ezra Miller, Emma Watson and Mae Whitman chief amongst them) who help him come out of his shell. That's not too unbelievable, but it becomes increasingly silly when Whitman becomes romantically involved with him, and Stone, on whom Lerman is crushing, would probably be game if she weren't already involved. This plays out like a fantasy, not reality. If you've ever been in a high school as an adult the maturity difference between freshmen and seniors - Hell, freshmen and sophomores - is hugely pronounced. Even among alterna-kids, no 18 year old girl is going to even think about dating a 14/15 year old. I couldn't quite get over that, but that's hardly the only flaw. Ezra Miller is definitely the stand-out. His homosexual character is a bit cliché, but I was happy that they actually weren't afraid to give him a sex life (though not graphic, I'm surprised it didn't land an R-rating because of it).