Adventures in Public School

Claire (Judy Greer) is the overprotective single mom of teenager Liam Heap (Daniel Doheny). She is dismissive of public high schools and has been homeschooling Liam everything including sex. He is book smart and headed for Cambridge to study Astrophysics following his hero Stephen Hawking. MacKenzie (Grace Park) is a fellow homeschool mom and Autumn is her even weirder daughter. The kids are at the local high school to take the Graduation Equivalency Exam. Liam falls for public school student, the one-legged Anastasia (Siobhan Williams) and deliberately tanks his test. He pushes his way to be a temporary student taking over sick Maria Sanchez's schedule. Everyone starts calling him Maria. Claire sees this as teenage rebellion and decides to teach it as part of his curriculum.

This is quirky and sometimes funny. Judy Greer is one of the best comedic actresses around. Daniel Doheny is a nice lead but he looks way too good. If anything, this needs more quirkiness. He needs to look nerdier. In general, the whole movie needs more. I love the premise but it needs to shoot for Napoleon Dynamite. There is plenty of potential of achieving that. There is a shocking surreal moment with a fetal pig well into the movie. It needs to do more and earlier or not at all. Either inanimate objects talk to him or they don't. For the students, Siobhan is a great ingenue but the others are lacking. It would have been great if Autumn joined Liam to attend high school. The gay friend needs to be more friend and less annoying. The bully needs to be more buff and younger. He looks like a 80s porn star with a 70s stach. Also, there is a general use of 80s motif like an old computer and an old family car which creates an odd feel in the modern world. The off-centre camera style is also part of that. The lighting is too bright at the school. The editing needs to be sharper and quicker to add pace and quirkiness to the style. It needs to be tighter which would shorten the under ninety minutes running time. The movie needs a few more stories and that's why I would love some more from Autumn. Quite frankly, MacKenzie is fun at the party and the movie needs more of her. There are many very good parts and this works on the whole.

You may like this if you like irrationally absurdist comedies. I feel it was just trying too hard to be funny. It could have worked with quirky characters but instead everything was pushed beyond farce which deprived the movie of real emotion. With a plot that hinges on personal growth, you need real emotion. Check out the good soundtrack though!

The only person more socially awkward then Liam is his mom, but watching his mom project on him is just cringingly funny. I loved this movie

'ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A teen comedy about a socially awkward home-schooled teenager that enters public school for the first time, against his mother's wishes, in order to pursue a young woman he falls for. The film was directed by Kyle Rideout, and written by Rideout and Josh Epstein. The movie stars Daniel Doheny and Judy Greer, and it was released by Netflix through it's streaming site. I found the film to be funny and amusing enough. It's definitely nothing fresh or especially memorable, but I had a good time watching it still.

Judy Greer is a star. It would've been a decent teenage movie but she took it to another level and it's really enjoyable to watch. The humor is cute throughout and I laughed out loud a couple of times. Can't remember the last time it happened.