Retro Review: The Art of Getting By

Writer's Note: For our second birthday girl, we have the sinister sister of snark, Emma Roberts, Scream(4) Queen and erstwhile Supreme (as in American Horror Story: Coven), and daughter of Eric and niece of Julia. She turns 27 today and just gets more talented and sexy with each passing year, IMHO. 

As with our other birthday girl, I'm going to highlight one of her lesser-known flicks, the excellent coming-of-age comedy/drama, The Art of Getting By, featuring young Norman Bates (as in the excellent TV series Bates Motel) and current Good Doctor, Freddie Highmore. So get a clue, Nancy Drew, and check it out!

This review was originally published on Facebook on June 3rd, 2015. 

Freddie Highmore, currently killing it literally and figuratively on Bates Motel as of late, plays a disaffected Senior at a high school in NYC on the verge of flunking out. He meets a girl, played by Emma Roberts at her most winning self, and eventually gets inspired enough to get out of his rut and get it together. That's about it, really.  

I liked that the film resisted the urge to get the two leads together immediately and instead had them flounder around a bit and make mistakes before eventually finding their way back to one another. I thought that was a much more realistic approach than the whole "quirky guy-meets-manic pixie dream girl" thing. 

Highmore is a bit pretentious and annoying early on, but, much like the cast of characters in the film, he grows on you as it goes along. Roberts, as ever, was super likable. I thought she killed it on American Horror Story: Coven in an atypical role as a mean girl type. (Didn't care for last season, Freak Show, but her role was way underwritten, to be fair.) 

I have high hopes for her in Fall's Scream Queens, also from AHS creator Ryan Murphy, and which marks the return of all-time great scream queen legend Jamie Lee Curtis to the genre. Really hope it doesn't suck. 

Anyway, TAOGB is a cool flick with a decent soundtrack- bonus points for the use of Pavement in one of the final scenes- and it leaves things gratifyingly open-ended. If you like the whole coming-of-age sub-genre or any of the leads, you'll probably like this.  

* Fun fact: I didn't even realize Alicia Silverstone was in this till the credits rolled, and I used to have the biggest "crush"- pun definitely intended- on her back in the day. Go figure.