Rented this one a couple of weeks back and watched with my wife and daughter. This is one of the first movies in a long time which my daughter has not watched on repeat. And that says a lot, for a few reasons; she watches almost everything repeatedly, this was a Google TV rental so we only had it for a few days (and she gets FOMO about access disappearing to movies/shows) and it was about a topic she is OBSESSED with; teenagers.
My daughter is not a teenager. She just idolizes everything about teenagers and high school because she is a pre-teen. (Yeah, that's a cop out answer).
So, Ruby Gillman. It is a nice coming of age story with some good family messages and some weak attempts at some messaging about friendships. I can't really imagine an age group it wouldn't be appropriate to watch around so it is pretty good in that respect. And while it isn't a bad movie, I don't think anyone in our family would have labelled it as a good one either.
My rough ratings are as follows:
- Quality: 6/10
- Story: 6/10
- Message: 3/10
- Overall: 5/10
Some spoilers to follow.
Quality:
While the quality of the movie isn't terrible. It is well animated and it is cohesive. I give a bump over 5 because I feel that there has to be something, not covered in the other categories, which is negative. So while I'm giving this a 6, you can think of it more as a soft 5. There aren't any glaring quality issues but there are also no obvious wins.
Story:
Similarly, the story here is pretty one-dimensional. This time I think that the 6 is at least deserved though. There are some very minor positives. The story is cohesive which I can't say is true for all movies. And I couldn't think of any major issues with the story telling. I just expect that most people watching will be wondering "when is it supposed to get good?".
Message:
This is the real let down of the movie in my opinion. This is a movie trying to get a couple of messages across. But, it doesn't really deliver on any of them. There isn't enough time spent on the back story between the mother and grandmother. Especially not to explain the near instantaneous forgiveness and team work. Without the effort spent on establishing that story it also made it less relatable.
And then, Ruby basically spends the bulk of the movie betraying her friends and love interest to hang out with the popular girl who turns out to be the big bad of the movie (in a not so surprise reveal). And once again, the grudges simply disappears after the big battle.
In my opinion, too much time was spent between Ruby and the popular girl as there wasn't really any development between their two characters. The reunion at the end would have been much more believable (for example), had Ruby spent more time on those friendships and simply had a "moment of weakness" culminating in one large betrayal. Instead, she basically snubs her friends non-stop and gives up on the boy she is crushing over for half the movie.
Where did they find these script writers? It seems like none of them have ever been or seen teenagers. And the representation was SOOOOO bad that despite the fact that "Teenager" is in the title, that my daughter who is obsessed with all things "teen" immediately wrote it off.
Overall:
Not much to say here, but "meh". As mentioned before, this isn't a bad movie. It is an OK time killer. It is something you can watch with family of pretty much any younger children. I'd watch it on an airplane or a long car ride or play it in the background when I need some white noise. I could also see it being a good choice if you have multiple kids of different ages (but none over the age of say 13) and can't make a consensus on anything else. In those situations it would be a pretty solid choice. It shouldn't offend anyone
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