Perfect High

Perfect High revolves around Amanda, played by Bella Thorne (the one impressive performance), a typical high-school dancer who engages herself with a group of people and soon becomes a drug addict. Life around her starts collapsing, but she cannot help it.

Firstly, the film revolves about a concept that has been overdone a million-times before, and it is no surprise this film is not getting the attention that it anticipates. Frankly enough, this film seems to be going nowhere with its premise, and indeed it doesn't; it is by the numbers teen melodrama that just seems to have an understatement about how social status affects a teen's life, and how everyone is pursuing fame and whatnot. However, I felt nauseated by the fact that the characters in this film are unlikable, except for Amanda (and not all the times). I like how Amanda kinda bonds with her younger brother, which is unique sort-say but still feels withdrawn and overdone before as this whole movie is.

I can't help it but see that this is a disappointing film, and it lived up to my low expectations weirdly enough; a movie should surpass or disappoint, but this movie was just what I expected it to be: which is a nothing movie, with empty gaps that might have been filled up with twisted ideas, yet the writers to the film decided to dedicate the it to its good cause, and when movies choose style over substance (or in this case, being a shameless Ad campaign to raise awareness), it should not have been a movie in the first place, a could see this as an impressive 2 - minutes feature to raise awareness. And that is it for this film, it is not "Perfect" nor "High".

If I were in charge, it would be mandatory that every middle schooler would have to watch this. Bella Thorne actually gave the best performance of her career. It's so realistic & it makes you a little sick to your stomach. It should. People that wrote in with their reviews who say that it's melodramatic and it's been done before, they probably have never had any kind of crisis in their family. This movie nails it on the head. These four teenagers is ARE all good kids and they all experience it together, so nobody had any kind of reasoning. I encourage you to make your kids sit down and watch this, as uncomfortable as it may be.

A popular female high school teenager Amanda Walker (Bella Thorne) who thrives on posting her cheerleader dance moves on social media platforms dislocates her knee which leads her into a fast paced downward spiral of first taking pain medication, to hard drugs. As a teenager girls/boys all make a decision whether to become leaders or followers. In this case the once popular cheerleader Amanda becomes a follower to a more popular girl who leads her into sex, drugs and alcohol.

Of course her parents are oblivious to the warning signs that Amanda displays and they chalk her mood swings and periodic illnesses up to her cheerleading accident and a more recent eating disorder.

Further along going into a downward spiral Amanda befriends a few other drug abusers and she comes face to face with a life or death situation with her new found friend.

Of course this Lifetime movie is attempting to teach teenagers what can happen rather quickly if you get mixed up with the wrong crowd of friends, drink alcohol and take unknown drugs, but I thought they glorified the process as Amanda loses her virginity and enjoyed being high. In my humble view this Lifetime movie failed miserable and sent the reverse message that drugs and sex can be glamorous and there will always be someone there to save you before you go too far overboard with the drugs and/or alcohol. As for the sex? Lifetime seems to chalk that up to just being a normal teenager. Both sad and wrong again.

Too bad Lifetime missed the opportunity to take drug abuse, alcohol abuse and free sex more seriously then they did. Miss Thorne only helped glamorize these issues. There will certainly be no Emmy's for this tripe.

I give it a 3 out of 10 IMDB rating.

This is not super deep or nuanced commentary on substance abuse--this is the classic "fall of the all-star athlete" with contemporary dress and social media in the background. It does highlight the situation of teen athletes getting on the painkillers after sports injuries, but this movie was clearly made for entertainment value and not to preach any message deeper than "careful with those Vicodin and never do heroin."

I see some reviewers seem to report strong emotional resonance from the movie.. I just didn't feel that, and it's not because I haven't lost any friends to drugs. The film's exploration of fake friends, teen partying, parents difficulty relating or understanding etc. Are all well executed, but again this is definitely a movie for TV fun--one that you can apparently construe some personal meaning from, too! I just liked it as a Lifetime movie.

Depending on the subject matter, I like Lifetime movies, but this one was corny even for them. The underlying premise is somewhat believable, but overall the movie seems unrealistic. It has some dramatic scenes, but they're not handled well so it comes off as melodramatic and awkward. Lifetime has made movies of similar content that were much better quality. Also, I get that social media is a major part of a teenager's life, but you can't even read what they're texting/posting and it seems awkwardly done. I don't think drug addicts constantly post about their use on social media. They could've integrated it that much better