Behaving Badly (2014)

Boring

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

An amazing and interesting movie with comedy & laughs, Gomez & Wolff put in a great amount of effort into the movie, shown through how well the movie turned out. The movie is a romantic comedy with an amazing plot, story-line, and characters. 'Behaving Badly' is definitely worth your time & will put a smile on your face, but at the same time, teach you a wonderful life lesson. Props to Selena for a more mature role in this film and doing an amazing job! I hope to see these two collaborate in more movies. They did an amazing job together and this is definitely a movie worth watching more than one time. Be sure to check out this delightful movie soon!

The movie itself might not have made it over a 4 or a 5 rating, if it weren't for the cast! I mean Mary Louise Parker, Heather Graham and Elisabeth Shue (!) on one side ... Cary Elwes, Dylan McDermott and Jason Lee on the other. Oh and a bonus Gary Busey just for good measure. I was almost blown away just seeing those guys on screen (some in different roles).Our main protagonist could've used a bit more ... a bit more everything actually. While the talking fast and making quick jokes does work in the movies favor most of the time, it might get tiresome for most pretty quickly. Still the script must have had something (or the producer/casting director had good connections) to attract all that talent to be involved with this. Oh yeah Selena Gomez is in this too - in case you love/hate her, therefor watch everything/nothing she's in ... A bit premature and juvenile (maybe more than a bit), this still can be entertaining at times

Lately, I've been doing some serious crushing on former Disney star Selena Gomez (as well as a few other post-teen hotties from the same network as well as Nickelodeon,but I won't get into them).Despite the fact that she has poor taste in particular boyfriends,she's definitely talented and quite a looker. But one wonders whether she'll be as popular 5 yrs from now or drop off the face of the earth.you can only go by her singing career(which will likely fizzle out because Disney-based pop has n't much of a shelf-life)and a fledgling acting career.Some advice to Ms. Gomez,rise above the material,cuz whether she likes it or not,she's the main reason for even giving 'Behaving Badly' a second glance.High schooler Rick Stevens(Wolff)narrates the tale(Ferris Bueller- style)of how he won the heart of his true love Nina Pennington(Gomez)and along the way conquers a pill-popping',Vodka swilling mother(Mary-Louise Parker),stripper older sister(Ashley Rickards),estranged and adulterous father(Cary Elwes),seductress mother(Elizabeth Shue)of his slightly unhinged best bud Billy(Buchanan),vindictive ex(Stowell)of said true love,as well a pervy priest(Jason Lee),pervier principal(Patrick Warburton),shifty attorney(Heather Graham)and down-right sleazy strip club boss(a rare comedic performance by Dylan McDermott)who probably runs the same seedy establishment where his sister part-times.The film is pretty predictable,since it seems to use cliché's from teen sex comedies of yesteryear,including a ludicrous wager(on how long it takes 'til he beds Nina) Rick makes with a fellow classmate who happens to be the son of a Lithuanian mobster(a plot device i felt superfluous and closely similar to 'American Pie').But this should have been more successful,considering the attractive supporting cast alone.But 'Behaving Badly'does n't quite cut it and IMAO,here's why:Nat Wolff,the obvious protagonist,has the charisma of a wire hanger,after you twist it to snake out your clogged drain.This flick falls in line with previous duds 'Bandslam' and 'I Love You,Beth Cooper',which despite featuring the eye candy of ingénues Vanessa Hudgens(Selena's 'Spring Breakers' co-star)and Hayden Panettiere respectively,had male leads that never endeared you to the story.Wolff comes across rather smug,so it's hard to sympathize with his character and you don't see why Gomez's character would be interested in him(especially when he fails to deliver on backstage passes to the Josh Groban concert).I'll admit that this movie is more enjoyable than the previously mentioned 'Bandslam' and 'Beth Cooper',but at least those two flicks had theatrical releases while this movie,already delayed by nearly 2 yrs,got an iTunes release this month.I think that guy McLovin,from 'Superbad' would have been a better choice for the role of Rick.As for the rest of the cast,they really shine in their roles and wind up stealing scenes-the adults in particular.You never really buy the Rick/Nina romance so it would've been better served to explore his relationship with his long-suffering mum(Parker also moonlights as Rick's guardian angel(?)of sorts,another subplot that does n't quite work)or his sultry sister,who invites her stripper friends over to the crib in a sequence that reminds me of 'Risky Business'.Going back to Gomez,she's not a terrible actress,as others have described her,but in this particular movie she seems un-enthused,not having the 'just go with it' approach as the more established actors like Parker,Lee,Elwes,McDermott,and Graham.I really wished that at any minute she would've seized the opportunity to steal this movie away from Wolff,but it never quite happened.Based on the Ric Browde's 2000 novel titled "While I'm Dead,Feed the Dog"(which should've been the title for the film-a cryptic note scrawled by Billy's mom after a failed suicide attempt sends her to the hospital)and adequately directed by Tim Garrick,'Behaving Badly'is not for the faint of heart(as in pre-pubescent fans of Gomez's Disney show 'Wizards of Waverly Place'),it really earns its R-rating.But it never gets to the degree of recent The Asylum releases(yes there is nudity and no-Selena does n't disrobe but she does call Rick a 'motherfucker'which considering his affair with the milfy Shue,is quite appropriate).It is the supporting cast that saves this flick from being a total loss,so it's slightly above average and though you won't be laughing hysterically throughout,the film has its moments,mostly provided by McDermott and a few involving Lachlan Buchanan.Most film pundits would already consider this a failure because of its aforementioned failure to obtain a theatrical release and a desire to prove Gomez an overrated no- talent(I think it's her punk-ass on-again,hopefully off-again Canadian bff who deserves that title;he actually makes a blink-and you'll miss him cameo in the jail scene.Remember,this was filmed in 2012,when the 2 were very much an item).But I must remind you that Selena is not the actually star or main focus of this picture,so don't blame her if you're disappointed,believe me,you could do worse(did I mention The Asylum teen sex comedies?).Selena is gorgeous in this,but almost every actress is attractive in this(Graham and Shue are especially tantalizing),even the background strippers.So if you like Selena,rent this off Netflix or iTunes and hopefully she'll take my advice for her future film endeavors:Rise above the script and go for it!!

Somewhere in this tangled mess of debauchery and off-kilter, almost deliberately offensive humour is a decent movie. At its best and most promising, Behaving Badly plays like an ultra-quirky, purposefully black-hearted look at the standard coming-of-age tale we've seen too many times before. But it never really knows when to dial back its strange and frequently off-putting humour, resulting in a film that frustrates as much as it amuses.Rick (Nat Wolff) is a self-absorbed, close to morally degenerate teenager growing up in a complicated household: his boozed-up mom Lucy (Mary Louise Parker) is barely coherent from day to day, and his deadbeat dad Joseph (Cary Elwes) only stays married to avoid paying alimony. Even as he navigates a huge crush on Nina (Selena Gómez), the school's resident goody-two-shoes, he embarks on an ill-advised affair with the sexually voracious Pamela (Elisabeth Shue), mom to his strange best friend Billy (Lachlan Buchanan).The film is every bit as complicated and filthy as its title suggests, its characters dealing in drugs, alcohol and sex with next to no moral compunction. Actually, that's not its problem. These scenes are riddled with a grim humour, and work best when played loudly and ridiculously - as they frequently are. And so there are moments when Rick receives counselling from Saint Lola, the patron saint of aimless teenagers (played in a neat Oedipal twist by Parker); or when he must cut a deal with slimy strip-club boss Jimmy (Dylan McDermott) to score backstage passes for a Josh Groban concert. The film is almost brave in how determinedly it sinks into the most depraved of narrative depths.But it's hard to shake the feeling that writer-director Tim Garrick lets his own crazy creation get the best of him. He packs the film with knowing, self-aware touches - Rick frequently speaks straight to the camera, as the title character did in iconic teen flick Ferris Bueller's Day Off - but achieves very little in the way of emotional payoff and insight. As a result, when his deliberately peculiar film heads down the road to redemption, it pretty much collapses on itself. It's hard to believe in any of Garrick's characters making good, when they've otherwise been portrayed as so horribly bad that they barely register as real human beings.At least Garrick's cast seems to be in on the joke. Wolff is an affable if somewhat opaque lead, largely outshone by Buchanan (delightfully weird) and the adult actors - all of whom seem to be only too pleased to have been let off the leash and told to behave, well, pretty much as badly as they like. Parker, Shue and McDermott, in particular, play the taboo-happy comedy with relish, committing so fearfully to their parts that watching them in action becomes part of the joy of the film.It's unfortunate, then, that they're doing such good work in so awkward a movie. Behaving Badly is not for the faint of heart or morally conservative, for a start. But even those who are willing to take a walk on the wild side with their teen raunch-coms will find themselves disappointed by the film, which flirts tantalisingly with the dark side but winds up being both too strange and too predictable to really work in the end.