Remember the Daze

Remember the Daze reminded me a lot of Degrassi: The Next Generation, only with more emphasis on getting stoned. It probably isn't an accurate portrayal of most high school experiences in 1999, and certainly not of my high school when I graduated in 2005, but it walks the line between being realistic and unbelievable well enough to make it quite interesting to watch. It's also easier to take seriously because it takes on more of an indie film feel than a stoner flick. The cast members all showed great promise in their future acting careers and while they chose a few people who've been in big films before (Alexa Vega, Khleo Thomas), it was equally refreshing to see new faces and talent. The dynamic of the cast was superb, despite how many people were involved. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, it was much better than I expected it to be based on its description.

If you were in the party crowd in high school, then this is like watching a home movie of people you don't know - boring. And if you weren't, this movie nails reality - it all seems better than it actually is. I'm a nutshell, "Beautiful Ordinary" is just this, the actors are beautiful, and the film is ordinary.

So there was this woman who went to film school and saw "Dazed and Confused" and decided that she could make a movie just like it. And she tried. And she failed. But you can learn something about what makes a real film if you watch them one right after another. Oh wait IMDb thinks all movies deserve at least ten lines of text. This one doesn't but here goes.

The music was almost interesting. The young actors tried their best but unfortunately when there is no plot it is hard for the characters to develop. Many have gone on to act in real movies so I guess this was some kind of learning experience for them. Actually, the most impressive thing about this movie was the ability of the filmmaker to get so many talented and pretty young people to be in the film to begin with. Perhaps she has a future as a producer. She would be much better off if she let someone else write the script, direct the movie and come up with an better idea then let's rip off a mediocre Linkletter movie.

This movie was phenomenal for the audience who can understand it on a deeper level (Think "The Fountain"). Yes, on the surface it seems like another "Dazed and Confused", but its very accurate to its 1999 time period, and the sex and drugs are a key element to what the movie's about, because the sexual desires and drugs are what bring everybody's different social groups together. The reason why some people might hate this movie is because it isn't plot driven. It's instead character driven, and the interesting thing about it is that it doesn't really have lead characters, it just has an outstanding ensemble cast of some rising stars like Khleo Thomas, Melonie Diaz, Lyndsy Fonseca, Amber Heard, Alexa Vega and Chris Marquette, and some newcomers like Charles Chen, Shahine Ezell, and Katrina Begin. I agree with the other commenter that they did an excellent job with the casting, which is very important in a character-driven film. I disagree however, with the comments that Jess Manafort's script tries too hard to be filled with "funny" stoner jokes. There's so much going on in this film, there's so many different characters leading different lifestyles that end up colliding, that for each thing you may hate about the film there will always be something you love. Amber Heard and Melonie Diaz stole the show for the female casting, and Chris Marquette and Charles Chen had to be my favorite male characters. Like I said in the beginning, if you watch this movie on the surface it may seem stupid and old. If you watch it with more concentration to find a deeper meaning, it becomes an excellent teenager film about the key to blending the high school cliques so everybody fits in. I highly recommend it.

I'm not trying to delude myself about this movie being some spectacular film about anything but I do have to thrown in my two cents. First and foremost, seeing as a lot of the people who have reviewed this either graduated quite a bit before or after (myself included) this movie was supposed to take place, I feel it's necessary to point out that it only takes about two years for trends and music and pretty much everything that's important to us in high school to completely change.

Now, as for this movie in particular, "let's get stoned..." was not NEAR as rampant as I have read nor was it the main focus of A LOT of the characters. Yes the casting was a bit old to be believable, the actors still did a good job of playing their characters. As for the realism of the movie, when I was in high school partying was all I was worried about. I blew off all of my classes and still passed with honors while being baked damn near everyday. This movie isn't near as bad as it's been made out to be nor is it any kinda of revelation to life for teenagers. It's simply a movie about some kids who just graduated and want to kick back. No more no less, and it does a good job of portraying them.

Remember, as fast as things come, they leave, and that applies to high school as well. Don't nuke it people.