Am I Missing Something?

Absolutely amazing

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

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.

A teenager takes on his own investigation of a murder in Washington D.C. November Criminals is a boring and terrible film about a teenager's sex life with his girlfriend when on the same time he tries to become 'Sherlock Holmes' and that's the problem with the movie right there. It tries to be a romantic comedy and on the same time a mystery crime investigation movie and fails in both parts. The acting wasn't terrible to be honest but the film's terrible script and plot does make up for a disappointing movie and a talented cast that gets wasted. (0/10)

This low-budget "suspense" film wrapped up shooting after a whirlwind period of a little over month, and the rushed production process is apparent in the final product. In the bonus track of the DVD of "November Criminals," the novelist Sam Munson, whose book was the basis for the film, summed up his themes of "resistance" of the two young detectives and their "uncertain quest for justice." While those noble goals were interesting, they were not fully realized in a film that lacked credibility from start to finish.First, it was not convincing why the two young detectives would try to solve the cold-blooded murder of a high school friend. The school scenes were not believable, and despite the two earnest performances, it was difficult to imagine that the two students, Addison and Phoebe, would ever be admitted to the University of Chicago and Yale, based on what we see of them in this film. There was only one scene where we saw Phoebe pretending to do some studying. The entire premise of the film seemed far-fetched.One of the gimmicks used in the screenplay was a tried and true film technique for any formula murder mystery: to make the police stupid and incompetent. In this case, it should not have been difficult for the authorities to follow the same process of investigation as Addison and Phoebe that would lead them to a killer who failed miserably in covering his tracks.The actress playing the role of Phoebe indicated in the behind-the-scenes track of the DVD that "every emotion in the human spectrum" appears in this film. But from the perspective of the audience, the emotional range was actually very narrow with a morose feeling hovering over every aspect of the film--school, home, and society.The home life of Addison and Phoebe was one-dimensional gloom and doom. Addision lives in a modest house with his dad following the death of his mom who suffered an aneurysm. Both father and son are still grief-stricken, and the house is slovenly and unkempt. By contrast, Phoebe resides in an immaculate, upscale home with all the latest amenities. Yet she and her single parent mother rarely communicate, and Phoebe is always eager to get out of the house. In both the living environments of Addison and Phoebe, the mood is lugubrious.Some subtle details in the film point to the shocking use of drugs by the best friends of Addison and Phoebe. Like the inept police, the secret world of drug addiction seemed like another plot device, as opposed to deriving from character development. The most outlandish scene is when Addison, desperate for clues about his friend's murder, agrees to make a drug delivery. It turns out that the recipient is one of his high school classmates and the dearest friend of Phoebe.The film's director, Sacha Gervasi, asserted that the film "sends a positive message" to viewers. But what actually is that positive message? The film begins with a quote from the Latin author Virgil, who wrote that "fortune sides with him who dares." But for young Addison, who believes that he somehow "has it covered" in his reckless private eye work, the more daring quest would be the formidable challenge of gaining admission to the University of Chicago.

November Criminals has been advertised as though it's a movie, but there is no way in which it really is one. For a start, there's the sheer brevity of it. Take away the opening and closing credits, and this thing is 74 minutes long. That isn't a movie, it's an extended short film. It does make up for that by feeling as though it lasts for hours. In those 74 minutes, the following actual things happen: Boy and girl have sex, in gauzy Mills-and-Boon-o-vision. Boy's friend is killed, off-screen. Boy investigates friend's death, a bit. He confronts another character, who just flat-out tells him who the killer is. He confronts the killer, a character we haven't seen until the final 10 minutes. He gets shot, but very slightly and he's quite all right really.That's it. All told, that amounts to about 10 minutes of things actually happening. The rest of it amounts to more bland filler than my grandma's meatloaf, with l-o-o-o-o-n-g scenes of people driving, people walking, and people having anguished conversations that go nowhere and illuminate nothing. We even get the full 3 minutes of David Bowie's 'Life On Mars' at one point. It's a good song, but those three minutes, like most of this stuff, could have been cut out very easily.The two lead actors give frankly baffling performances. Chloe Moretz is trying, at least, but her character has nothing to say and even less to do. Why she agreed to be in this is something of a mystery. As for Ansel Elgort, he gives a thoroughly charisma-free turn which is so different from his captivating, fluid performance in this year's Baby Driver that I seriously wondered if it was the same actor. There are scenes here where he stumbles around as though he's forgotten how to walk.In short (and it's worth saying again, this really was very short) there's nothing here worth anyone's time. I don't know why this thing exists. I'm pretty sure the people who made it don't know why it exists, either.

Not a amazing movie. Very light to watch. Different. If you are ok with not watching the movie of the year and you like crime movies go for it.