Brandon at Random Reviews

I hate that feeling like I know I’ve seen a movie before but I can’t remember much about it at all to the point that I’m not sure I actually have seen it. I do watch a lot of movies, and with that whole concept, a lot of the ones I see do fall off my radar. It’s not necessarily that they didn’t have an impact on me, but rather it’s often just beyond my attention span or memory limits. Sometimes you just have to clear the old cache and make room for new memories.

I must say I do like Brie Larson. She is a good actress. My struggle with her is, and I haven’t seen her complete filmography, that she hasn’t ever done anything I’ve seen to demonstrate a lot of range. She’s always playing the not super talkative bland type, with a low-key sense of humor. She’ll make snide comments that aren’t laugh out loud things, but just like ones that make you breathe more through your nose a second. But she is good here and we do see some really good enthusiastic concern and anger, she fits this role well. Rami Malek is also good here in a supporting role, and at this point he probably wasn’t a complete unknown, but was likely not someone you knew by name in 2013. There is a guy named John Gallagher Jr. who I’ve only seen in a few things and Stephanie Beatriz who I know as Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn 99 (great comedy show, check it out). There are a few other supporting roles played by people I don’t recognize, so I won’t mention them here. But all of them give solid performances that feel genuine.

Grace (Larson) runs a group home for troubled teens with help from Mason (Gallagher), Jessica (Beatriz), and Nate (Malek). There are a lot of different plot threads here that are all given just the right amount of attention. We see Grace’s life inside and outside of work with and without boyfriend Mason. As far as patients, we get to see the struggles of a new teen girl to the facility as well as a guy who is turning 18 and is facing having to leave. Nate is the new staff member who is struggling to figure out how to behave in the tense environment. All of these stories are very well done.

With my mental health history, I have actually been in psych wards a couple of times. Typically it was just that my symptoms would get too severe and I became a concern for self-harm and I needed my meds adjusted and monitored. So I had to go to these places where people from all across the mental health spectrum would go. A lot of things not allowed. Belts, strings, things you could get stabby with, etc. Those experiences were easily some of the worst of my life. Luckily I only ended up in them a few days per visit. Those are not the kinds of environments that facilitate improvement to mental health, rather the opposite. This teen group home seems like a more laid back homey version of a psych ward, but these kids seem way more down to earth than what I experienced.

I would say this is definitely a solid movie, worth checking out. It might be a tad slow in spots, but it does keep the plot moving so that’s good. I would say if you want an indie drama that is not your typical story, this one’s for you. It won’t blow you away or really put you in a good mood necessarily. But it gives some perspective for these kinds of problems that are not all sunshine and roses. Give it a try. It’s on like every free streaming service out there. Get a library card to watch it ad-free on the service Hoopla. Also with ads on IMDbTV (on Amazon), Tubi, The Roku Channel, VUDU, and it’s also on Peacock for free? I think that’s how non-premium Peacock works. I’ve definitely seen this one before, and it was worth the rewatch.

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