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Daydream Nation

Daydream Nation (2011)

May. 06,2011
|
6.3
|
R
| Drama Romance

Forced to move to a boring backwater town, a teenager embarks on affairs with a teacher and a stoner classmate.

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Reviews

Listonixio
2011/05/06

Fresh and Exciting

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Acensbart
2011/05/07

Excellent but underrated film

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Beanbioca
2011/05/08

As Good As It Gets

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Fatma Suarez
2011/05/09

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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Ronald S.
2011/05/10

This is just one more in a long line of boring, filmed-in-BC, movies-with-a-message. Don't believe all the four- and five-star fake reviews from the cast and crew; it is formulaic garbage. Like everything else coming out of BC these days, it uses one has-been actor (Andie MacDowell) and a bunch of 25- and 28-year-olds, playing teenagers. There is not one believable scene in the entire movie, and - like every other "message movie" "stalker movie" or "murderer movie" out of BC - it is 99% talk talk talk.Examples. Wanna get your actors to appear edgy? Portray them hotboxing in a stranger's dad's van. Wanna see what the term "phoning in your performance" really means? Watch Andie MacDowall, who very obviously did this one only for the money.Typical CBC/Lifetime boring movie, made by too many actors and crew who spent too much time hotboxing and not enough time writing, directing, filming and acting. If you keep waiting for this movie to get better, trust me; it never does.

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fishza
2011/05/11

Daydream Nation is a film that I very much want to like, in fact, I'd even call it a guilty pleasure. Believe me, something about this film is charming. It has a nice atmosphere, style, tone, etc. Daydream Nation knows what it's trying to be. That alone is what keeps me from giving the movie anything higher than a three. Aside from the charm (and a few subtleties involving a man in a white suit) the film didn't really offer much. One of the main ideas the movie offers is identity, we hear a lot of Kat Dennings' character talking about how no one knows the real her, however, us as the audience never even know. The most we learn about her is that she moved from the city and her mom died. Who is she other than that? What does she do besides have sex with guys and then confuse them? The same goes for the teacher character, Mr. Anderson. We don't learn anything about him until it's time for him to be irrelevant. Moving on to the screenplay... well, it certainly isn't good enough for the film to be carried by as much narration as it is. There are a few missed opportunities to incorporate some playful or charming banter between characters so that we could get to know them, but instead this is usually replaced by sex or awkward small talk. In the end the film does have a certain charm to it that leaves me feeling drawn to it, but I can still definitely recognize that it's not "technically a great film".

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claudiahulagirl
2011/05/12

At the risk of coming across as a patronizing adult who "doesn't understand!!!", do not bother watching this if you are older than 15. This is truly one of the worst films I have seen all year, in fact possibly ever. Perhaps it's just that, at the ripe old age of 40, I'm too old for "coming of age" movies - I didn't think so, which is why I gave this one a chance, but by the time the credits rolled it was definitely a case of wishing I had dedicated 2 hours to doing something else. Don't let the trailer fool you, it will deceive you into thinking it's an interesting, exciting, smart, sexy story when it's a collection of groan-inducing, contrived clichés, "set against a backdrop of an industrial fire". Did I miss something deeply symbolic with the fire or is it really just completely pointless? The acting itself is good (and nice to see Andie MacDowell again, where has she been hiding all this time?) but good acting can't save a story that sucks. Its one redeeming feature is the soundtrack, which is great.

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jharrisonplease
2011/05/13

Wow, what a surprise this movie was. I was ready for the typical cheesy Twilight-like lovelorn teenage romance and what I got instead was an incredibly fun ride through the dark side of those hormone-driven years. This film managed to take a lot of elements you've seen before and mashed them together in such a funny, sweet and unexpected way that it came out the other end as what will probably be thought of us a modern teenage classic. Maybe that sounds too generous...but really...this movie caught me off-guard. Reading some of the reviews by those who didn't like it all I can say is they seemed to have missed the subtlety and the humor and the way it mixes trash culture (teenage films) with artier culture (maybe French New Wave? Danish films?) in a manner that reminded me of...well...Sonic Youth. The story is simple. A teenage girl moves to a small town. Bored there she begins to sleep with he teacher who seems like he's a deep and intelligent literary-type but turns out to be emotionally needy and craven. So the girl takes an interest in a boy her age whose only romance up 'til then was with his weed-pipe. The movie crackles with energy and tension. But I should warn you, it's does not feel like your average American teen film. Those looking to have everything telegraphed to them--especially the humor--will be disappointed. For those who like their teen dreams more nuanced, this is a new classic in a tiny but fun genre.

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