The Art of Getting By (2011)

Despite our difficulty in finding a positive review, Jack and I sort of liked this story of George, a self-described "teflon slacker" high school senior in NYC (Freddie Highmore). This is director/writer Gavin Wiesen's feature debut, with only one short before it. There certainly are some holes in the screenplay but I don't really get why the critics have been so savage (see rottentomatoes if you like). Highmore (wonderful in Finding Neverland (2004), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and August Rush (2007), and I wanted to see Toast (2010) last weekend but had a conflict) is now 19 and is finally playing his age. I believed him as the talented artist and compulsive homework-avoider (the previous title was Homework). Also a former child actor, Emma Roberts (I wrote about her in It's Kind of a Funny Story) is good as the pretty girl Sally who is still an outsider at this urban prep school. One of the screenplay holes is that Sally and George say that they are each other's only friends, yet they hang out at school with Zoe (Sasha Spielberg, who was in The Kids Are All Right--she looks more like her father Steven and not much like her mother Kate Capshaw) and Will (Marcus Carl Franklin, who was the young black "Bob Dylan" in I'm Not There (2007)). Michael Anganaro (Lords of Dogtown (2005), Snow Angels (2007)) is good as the slightly older artist Dustin who befriends both George and Sally. Rita Wilson (Mrs. Tom Hanks, she co-starred in Volunteers (1985), co-starred in Now and Then (1995), and I don't believe she's had any big roles since, but I always like her, e.g. in That Thing You Do (1996), The Chumscrubber (2005), It's Complicated, more) and Elizabeth Reaser (I liked her in Sweet Land and The Family Stone (both 2005), Puccini for Beginners (2006), Grey's Anatomy as the Jane Doe Alex fell in love with after she got her new face, and The Good Wife as Will's girlfriend) are George and Sally's dysfunctional mothers. Blair Underwood, Jarlath Conroy, and Alicia Silverstone, in descending order, have a little something to do as George's principal, art teacher, and English teacher. And George's stepfather is played by Sam Robards (played Scott Bakula's partner--Chris Cooper's neighbor--in American Beauty (1999) and Haley Joel Osment's dad in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), among others), the 49 year old son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall, but his is a small part, too. We enjoyed the location photography, as the whole thing was shot in New York City.

There are two soundtrack albums for sale on iTunes, one with all original score by Alec Puro and one with three Puro tracks and nine by various indie artists (none of which are available for individual download). This won't get any Oscar nominations but we found it diverting and I look forward to more Highmore in the future.