Terri

Terri (Jacob Wysocki) is a misfit who comes to school in his pajamas. He lives with his spaced out uncle (Creed Bratton). His vice principal Mr Fitzgerald (Jon C. Reilly) tries to reach out to him. Terri becomes friends with two other misfits. Chad (Bridger Zadina) is an angry wired loner, and Heather (Olivia Crocicchia) is the disgraced beautiful girl who got caught in a sexually permissive situation while in class.

Jacob Wysocki is playing a very low energy character. They have to figure out how to show that character in a compelling manner. Watching him getting picked on all the time wasn't such a fun watch. Bridger Zadina has a nice role as the energetic crazy little guy. I think it would have been better to start the movie with them as friends. At least the movie would have the energy to drive it along. Olivia Crocicchia does a good job as the girl. The big scene feels voyeuristic. But all three kids play their roles well. It's an odd little film. I just wish they showed what happened to their friendship after that night.

Terri is just not your average movie. I can understand why some do not like this: you have to let yourself in on it. At first I was not immediately carried away, but as the story continues I slowly but surely got sucked in.

I would not call it a comedy at all, though some scenes made me smile. It touches on subjects which keep your mind occupied on that age (and later too, though different;-).

The movie shows lessons of life which some learn early in their life, others have to live through and never learn. It shows us we can make mistakes, we will, and we even have to if we want to "learn life".

I understood it got a more restricted rating than the average action movie. I can only think it has to do with the sexual subjects it contains, but I think it is done in such a way that you can only learn good things from it if you're young.

Cinematography does not do anything new, but it's a lot better and fitting than the shaky camera's of the 100 million dollar movies that came out lately.

So, lessons in life here!

As we know, high school can be a difficult and challenging place for even the most socially adaptive student. For those who are different in one way or another, it can be misery, and alienated students do not always find a compassionate counselor or friend to steer them through the tough times. In the movies, however, it is often a different story. We have seen several films recently about teens that have lost their way but somehow find the perfect mentor to support them. The latest example of this is Terri, a new film by Azazel Jacobs, whose 2008 Momma's Man, was a work of rare honesty about a recently married man who falls into a psychological paralysis that keeps him from accepting the reality of his adult life.

Though the genre of teen misfits has been done before, Terri looks at the situation from a different vantage point and the result is a film of unusual freshness. Based on a screenplay Jacobs wrote with novelist Patrick Dewitt, Terri brings together an unlikely friendship between Terri (Jacob Wysocki), a heavily over-sized parentless teenager who lives with his Uncle James (Creed Bratton) who is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's, Chad (Bridger Zadina), a skinny, androgynous-looking youth with a high-pitched squeaky voice who directs his anger towards himself by pulling his hair out, and Heather ((Olivia Crocicchia), an attractive girl who has developed an unfortunate reputation around school for inappropriate sexual acting out.

Terri is consistently late to school and comes to class dressed in pajamas because he feels they are more comfortable. He is constantly teased and bullied by those who do not understand (and perhaps never will) the meaning of empathy. His behavior, while otherwise normal, can be bizarre. When his uncle asks him to set traps for mice in their attic, Terri takes the traps out into a wooded area near his suburban home and gleefully watches the dead mice being torn to shreds by devouring falcons. His tardiness and odd behavior draws the attention of the school's vice-principal Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly) who sets up sessions with Terri each week for counseling. Attempting to play the role of buddy rather than authority figure, Fitzgerald calls Terri "dude", uses "hip" language, and exchanges high-fives, but his behavior often feels strained.

Terri learns to appreciate the attention he is given, however, and, though he is tight lipped at the beginning of the meetings, he slowly begins to open up and express his feelings. Fitzgerald also has his problems at home and is not averse to sharing them with Terri. His sharing about his personal life, however inappropriate it may be for a school administrator, does provide a more level playing field and a closer relationship grows between the two people struggling to make sense of the world. An awkward late night party at Terri's house filled with drugs, alcohol, and sexual experimentation could have become a disaster, except for Terri's new found sense of self that allows him to know intuitively when to back off.

There are few dramatic movements in Terri, no sudden insights, and no startling epiphanies backed by the swelling chords of an orchestra. There is, rather, simply a growing ability of the characters to see beyond their differences to discover their common humanity. While the question of what Terri can do to lose some weight is oddly never brought up either by his mentor or his friends, Terri is a sweet, tender, and very observant film about young people coming to terms with the reality of their being different. It is not a cruel film in the slightest but one that conveys a sincere affection for its troubled characters, and the natural performances of Wysocki, Zadina, and Crocicchia make it a film to remember and cherish.

The independent film "Terri" is not a bio flick about Berlin lead singer Terri Nunn; if that would be the case, it would be a surefire Oscar winner. OK, so I am bias; and I do promise I will provide "no more words" to this review on my fascination with Ms. Nunn. Anyways, "Terri" actually is a very sweet movie about an overweight outcast teen named (see movie title) who wears pajamas to school, and is not to expressive. Terri lives with his uncle who suffers from Alzheimer's. The main subject of "Terri" is Terri's meetings with his school's assistant principal Mr. Fitzpatrick. The best scenes of "Terri" is on the elevator relationship of Mr. Fitz and Terri, and how Fitzpatrick notices the good-heartedness in Terri even though he is constantly tardy and does not have the proper school attire. But life is not one big Pajama Party for Terri; he is so profoundly unemotional due to the constant bullying he must have encountered throughout his young life; it is a norm to his daily routine. Terri does develop a friendship with an unstable student named Chad who pulls his hair follicles out due to his mental condition. The attractive teen student Heather enters the picture and has a key role in Terri's development. She herself is bullied at school due to an incident where students saw a male student perform a sexual act on Heather during home economics class. I can't put my finger on which sexual act it was; OK, that is enough. Director Azazel Jacobs does an admirable job in directing the picture; even though I could have done without the mousetrap scenes, which to me were kind of cheesy. However, Jacobs mastered the interaction chemistry between Mr. Fitzpatrick and Terri. Jacobs co-wrote the screenplay with Patrick Dewitt, and I must say it was very "dewitty". Newcomer Jacob Wysocki was not sucky at all as the title character. He was very impressive. I am sure Jacob will be climbing up the thespian ladder in the motion picture industry. And there is the great John C. Reilly who was a stalwart as A.P. Mr. Fitzpatrick; I will discipline those that say JCR is not one of the best actors in the movie business. Impressive supporting turns were also turned out by teen actors Olivia Crocicchia as Heather and especially Bridger Zadina as Chad. "Terri" was solid enough to get me terri-eyed to notice how authentic this character-oriented movie was; and that really is enough for me to recommend to you to get terried-away with a "Terri" viewing experience. **** Good

Having watched this film without any idea what it was about, I was completely surprised by it. It was a film similar to Napoleon Dynamite but yet it was in a class of it's own. I found myself glued to it, it both captivated and left me wanting more from it. At no point did I want to turn it off, the comedy was just perfect but not in a take the mickey way, it just worked. It's been a while since I have seen a film of this finesse and it does a good job of showing how hard life can be if you that little bit different, whilst showing the side of life rarely seen for a person who is a carer. A large body, a large heart and a large round of applause to the script writers and of course Terri himself.