While most of the reviews here give this movie high scores, the overall score of 6.1, as shown on the main page, as I write this, is far more accurate. The scores of "10" that some people gave here is an insult to the great films of Kubrick, Scorsese, Coppola, and many others. A "10" means a film is perfect; this doesn't even come close to meeting that standard.
I suspect this movie is more than a bit autobiographical, since Leah Meyerhoff cast her own mother as the mother in the film. I'll give Toni and Leah Meyerhoff credit for that; it must be hard for a person with a disability to appear in a film playing themselves. I would have given the film 5 stars if not for that.
But beyond that, the film is too artsy, and far too pretentious. The stop-action animation didn't add anything to the film, in my opinion. In fact, I saw it as a way to cover up the thin writing in the script. The thin writing was further shown by the run time of the movie: 1 hour and 18 minutes. Mercifully short.
Hopefully teen girls watching this might learn a lesson about falling in love with a boy simply because he is cute. But probably not; if anything, they will emulate the lead girl in the film because they think this film is showing them a step they need to go through as part of the maturing process. I hope that isn't true.
Anyway, the movie is a quick little diversion, but nothing with any deep significance or value. I see it as a vanity project on the part of the writer/director, nothing more.
