Wonderful character development!

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

So there is nothing new or particularly exciting about this movie. It's the story of who's not popular, a catalyst occurs, and then he is popular. It's a story that's been done before many times, Angus, Simon Birch, that one where Patrick Dempsey paid a cool girl to pretend to date him.That being said I did really enjoy watching this movie and would recommend it to others. Marcus and Troy's Father were both great performances and everyone else was really good. There were some fun scenes watching Marcus causing chaos here and there. It was interesting watching Troy's evolution throughout the movie. I wasn't quite emotionally invested enough for the OD scene to affect me but I did feel somewhat elated at the movies conclusion.Again it's nothing your going to be talking about with your friends for weeks on end but a pretty pleasant way to spend an evening if you don't have that option.

Troy is an obese lonely video-gamer loser in school. He lives with his father (Billy Campbell) and brother. He tries to kill himself by stepping in front of a bus and he's saved by Marcus. Marcus is an unreliable homeless school drop-out guitarist. Even his bandmates have kicked him out. Marcus starts using Troy for a place to stay and food to eat while claiming to start a band with him. Troy maintains his friendship with Marcus despite his father's reservations. Troy is a hormonal teen in love with Marcus' friend Isabelle (Lili Simmons).Marcus is really annoying at the beginning. It takes a long time before he shows any signs of passing friendship with Troy. He does grow as a character and the friendship becomes more. Troy is a really passive person but he also grows too. The father is interesting because he's not yet another clueless adult in a teen movie. It's a slow start but it gets better. It's pretty good work for Matthew Lillard's directorial debut.

I have been a fan of Matthew Lillard since scream (one of my favorite horror series) I even watched without a paddle and SLC punk just for Lillards performance. This being his directorial debut I couldn't resist giving it a watch. The movie really caught my attention early on, it reminded me of other quirky films such as Napoleon Dynamite and Juno. I could really tell Lillard was passionate about the source material making it all that much better, I felt the film really picked up and was at it's best at the concert where Troy realized the lifestyle he was missing out on and I know this subject of bullying and a "loser" find a niche and becomes "popular" has been beat over the head but this movie did a really good job at telling this story. That being said the ending sort of dragged on a bit and abruptly ended without (in my opinion) finishing the story it started. But all in all i recommend giving this film a look especially if your a fan of Lillard or of Zero to Hero tales. 6/10

I just want to give it up to the first time director. a nice small inspirational movie. movies like this show that the indie film world isn't dead, thanks to all involved in the movie. I remember seeing a trailer for this movie at an independent theater and just seeing the actors involved and the story was enough to hook me. this movie hits everything from social alienation, to coming of age story. it delves into what it's like growing up on different sides of the fence. in one family you have a kid who's mother died leaving him with a military father who nows nothing about his kids. the other side of the fence shows you the drugged out punk rocker ready to cause mayhem and destruction mainly to himself. what these two character's don't realize is that their misfortunes and problems end up combining and ultimately save them. I hope to see more from the two main actors. I also hope to see more from director Matthew lillard.