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Created Jan 29, 2008 03:41PM PST • Edited Jan 29, 2008 03:41PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Sam Leonard (Pinkston) who is just switching schools upon his senior year. He is up for a math scholarship to college, but Sam is really trying to get away from the persona of the smart guy. He doesn’t want to just survive high school anymore, he wants to reign supreme. Sam tries to be himself but just about everyone immediately gives him a hard time aside from Annie (Mara), one of Sam’s classmates. He is beat up by the jocks and rejected by the popular girls. So Sam figures that he has to lie his way through school in order to try to influence people’s friendships.
   Soon though, all of his lies begin to come true. He is living in an alternate reality. His dad is now trying to make a comeback from his days in the band, Poison. His mom is an Avante Garde artist who paints explicitly sexual material. Sam owns a nice car rather than the bicycle he is used to riding. The most popular girl in school, Vicki (Walsh), is crazy about him along with just about every other girl including his married teacher, Mrs. Moran (Polo). He is even magically the new star of the basketball team while he no longer has any mathematical abilities. At first Sam is really liking some of these changes, but some of them are a bit too much for him to take.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Ryan Pinkston does well as Sam, someone who can be superficial but is really just an average kid trying to be more. Kate Mara was charming as Annie, the one student shown in the school who seems genuine and doesn’t let other people do her thinking for her. She has a strong presence is actually much prettier than the supposed ‘hottest girl in school’, Vicki. John Carroll Lynch and Cynthia Stephenson were both hilarious as Sam’s parents even before the lies start taking over. They are very overprotective of Sam. They treat him like a child which proves to be very frustrating to him. Their language seems very goofy, the only thing is that they are being completely serious.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    The differences between the initial world and the created world that is really more of an illusion than anything else is shown well. Certain things could have been better such as showing who everyone really is rather than just Sam and Annie. We don’t really get to see the others as genuine people with complex emotions and different pasts. Since most of the film is in a world where if we were shown this it would just have been a lie that Sam told, it is excuseable.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Good 3.0

13. Music Good 3.0

    The soundtrack for the film is very fitting. There is a motif with the Beach Boys and specifically the song, “I Want to Go Home”. Sam wants to find a place that really feels like home, where he can be happy. The popular kids seem happy, so he thinks the key to having this lies in them. He comes to the realization that home wasn’t so far away from where he was in the beginning. There are also a few pop-punk numbers. Normally I am not the biggest fan of most music from the genre, but they seem to show the kind of spirit that Sam has. Also, the song “Liar” is pretty much perfect in his case.

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.3

    The language is tame and the main display of sexuality is from girls who throw themselves at Sam when his lies begin coming true.

17. Sex Innocent 1.3

18. Violence Gentle 1.3

19. Rudeness Polite 1.3

21. Reality

    Glib 1.1

    Now it is important to remember that this is a teen comedy and no revolutions are made here. There is a definite level of cheesiness but it is justified. Most of the film is taking place in an alternate world basically. All of the circumstances, people, and their actions are meant to be very out of the ordinary. So all of the craziness no matter how out of the place or random it may seem is that way to prove a point; this is not a natural reality. Although the plot in general doesn’t produce anything very shocking there are some specific surprising moments. One in particular is how open Mrs. Moran is with her overwhelming sexual attraction and possessiveness towards Sam. Another instance of this is when revenge is taken against him. It was really only one step away from ending like a violent and brutal horror film. I don’t mean to confuse anyone by that though, as this is a very funny pure comedy that shows how fake an environment we would have if lies created a fictional truth.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.1

23. Biological Glib 1.1

24. Physical Glib 1.1