Eight Days a Week

Peter is utterly infatuated with his longtime neighbor Erica (Keri Russell). With 3 months left before she goes to an east coast college, his grandfather Nonno urges him to go for it. He decides to stay on her front lawn. She tells him that she wants to be "just friends". His best friend Matt is obsessed with self-pleasure even with a watermelon. She is going out with the bully Nick. Peter waits day after day on her front lawn as he observes the neighborhood.

This reminds me a little of American Pie with masturbating inside food. It also tries to be a sweet coming-of-age movie. The two aspects do clash. On the one hand, Keri Russell has a wet T-shirt scene and Peter pontificates about her breast. On the other hand, it's a sugary sweet puppy love story. The old lady's revelations are really compelling but Michael Davis sometimes goes down a cheesy kiddie movie road. Joshua Schaefer is good as the lead but his narrations should be trim down. Finally, R.D. Robb is not funny enough to be the comedic best friend.

i saw Eight Days a Week one night late on HBO, and I thought it was really funny. I liked the way jokes were presented and narrated by the main character Peter who has sort of a dry sense of humor. I recommend this to any teenager, also if you like this movie you must see 100 Girls, which in my opinion is almost a rip off,(although also good) of Eight Days a week with a few more twists in it. See this movie.

Michael Davis hits the nail right on the head when it comes to the complexities of the teen mind, mainly focusing on lust (on the lighter side), sexual frustration and determination.

It takes place during the last free summer of a likable teen (a great Josh Schaffer). Inspired from a tale his grandpa Nono tells him, he sets out to win the affection of his life-long crush Erica (Keri Russell)by spending every minute of his summer on her front lawn. His task is not easy, as he must confront her bully boyfriend Nick (Johnny Green) and earn some respect from his father.

There is rather brilliant writing and direction by Michael Davis with characters who are all complex in their own way and great acting to match them (R.D. Robb steals the show in an ingenious performance).

There are some misfired jokes such as scenes involving an overly religious girl who plays with nun dolls (not offensive, just not very funny).

Nonetheless, 8 DAYS A WEEK is a little gem from Davis who unfortunately didn't match success with 2000's 100 GIRLS.

Although I would never call this movie a masterpiece, and I don't care to own it, I was surprised by its quality. You might say that if one's expectations are low enough, anything can seem surprisingly good, but if your expectations are that low you wouldn't rent the movie to begin with.

Although this movie didn't begin its life as a stage play, it easily could have as 90 percent of it is shot in the front yard of the character played by Keri Russell. The movie is reminiscent of John Cusak's "The Sure Thing" for the way it shamelessly admires the body and beauty of Keri Russell. And much of the humor recalls "There's Something About Mary" and "American Pie."

I do have a complaint, though, for the way the filmmaker makes buffoons out of Keri Russell's Christian parents. The consensus in Hollywood is that serious Christians are pathetic hypocrites who have no understanding or tolerance for others. Whoever made this movie must be a particularly virulent example of the Hollywood Christian-loather considering the extent to which he makes foolish villains out of Keri Russell's parents.

A film that I'd never heard of and chanced upon by accident, Eight Days a Week deserves to be a mainstay of teen cinema in the same way that John Hughes' eighties work is.

Joshua Schaeffer has just the right balance of geek and cool individualism to pull off a character that could very easily fall into stalker territory and R.D. Robb is excellent as his sex-obsessed sidekick; keeping what could very easily become a caricature grounded in reality. The supporting cast of oddballs never overshadow the main story, but equally don't feel like padding as we learn more about their slightly kooky lives.

It's a shame that films like this go unnoticed in a world where much more crass attempts at summing up teenage life (complete with thirty year old actors) can become box office hits.