This starts out as an adorable comedy as two old friends who haven't seen each other in years enjoy communicating online. Occasionally it gets a little serious, but nothing to be concerned about. Then things get very serious. And even more serious than that. I have seen a number of horror movies that started out as cute comedies and then turned dark. This is sort of like that.
And of course everything we see is something that appears on a device, whether it is the entire computer screen belonging to Teel, or just the video he sends Madison, or the video Madison sends Teel. It's amazing how all this can be accomplished. I do wish we had gotten a close-up look at the text messages. On my small TV screen I was never able to read them, and the audience was not necessarily helped by seeing Teel's full screen as they were being typed.
I did not know I was seeing Daniela Bobadilla until the end credits. Had I known, I was familiar with her from two series. She was Charlie Sheen 's perfectly ordinary and adorable daughter in "Anger Management", which I have seen most episodes of on whatever channel it was on. I had forgotten she was Sue's friend, if I even knew that was her, on "The Middle". I liked her in both roles.
But never mind all that. Bobadilla makes us like her--a lot--for the minute she first shows up on Teel's computer screen. Not only is she gorgeous, but she is so friendly and outgoing and just has this great personality. Of course she annoying when she tries too hard, but that's part of her charm. And she has a vulnerable side too, which Bobadilla shows very well. She also effectively shows concern when something is upsetting but not happening to her. And then there is something absolutely terrifying before the end, and she makes that work too. Who knew Sheen's daughter Sam was capable of so much? On the other hand, Sheen would have grounded her for all that makeup, though she has a more natural look later in the movie. I could make another comment about Sheen here, but I can't say too much.
Daniel Amerman does a capable job. He has no ability to be friendly to start with and is a completely awkward nerd who has all the personality of Mark Zuckerberg. That changes and we soon like Teel as well. And while he is mostly receiving help coming out of his shell, he can give help too.
Madison has terrible taste in music. That means she's typical of girls her age. Some of the songs are better than others. Nothing quite measures up for me but I'm not in the target audience, I'm sure. Teel also doesn't like good music, though his taste is not as macho as I would have expected. Then again, he is a nerd. Anyway, the list of songs goes on for days at the end and certain names show up a lot. I have never heard of any of these people and wouldn't want to know more about most of them.
There is some nice scenery between Michigan and California. I won't explain how or why we get to see it.
I was enjoying myself for a while, and I wish the movie's tone had stayed as adorable and positive all the way through. I still liked how it turned out, but not as much. But a message at the end indicates there was a more important purpose here.
