What a waste of my time!!!

Purely Joyful Movie!

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The Art of Getting By follows a lonely, slightly depressed teenage boy in his senior year of high school when he meets a more normal teenage girl and they become friends. The soundtrack was pretty good. But it seemed like it was just using lot's of indie songs without really caring about them. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it, but with a lot of soundtracks like this the music generally tends to have some significance to the movie, whether that be the tone of the movie or something else. The soundtrack didn't suit the tone of this movie at all. All the songs were there because the director (or whoever was in charge) knew that teenagers and all the pretentious hipsters who watch this movie would like it. And yes, I'm one of those pretentious hipsters, which is why I liked it. But regardless, there's a difference between having a good soundtrack and a good soundtrack that suits the movie. I like the title quite a bit. It's catchy, and it has relevance to the movie, specifically the characters. A lot of romantic dramas like this have titles about the events of the movie and not so much about the characters themselves, but the ones about the characters tend to be much better and more meaningful. It's clear that somebody cared about this movie enough to put a level of thought into it. Also, Emma Roberts. I haven't really seen any movies with her in them, but she's a beauty. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her face throughout this movie, as weird as that may sound. As for her acting talent, well, that could use some serious work. It was hard for me to discern whether the acting was bad or the writing. I figure it's a combination of both. Freddie Highmore is one of the better performances, but again, I can't tell if the writing is bad or if he is. Either way I was disappointed, I like Highmore a lot, specifically in Bates Motel where he plays a character somewhat similar to the one in this movie. Everyone else is just kind of okay, but mostly mediocre. Holy moly, the biggest problem with this movie is the pacing. It's pretty boring, or at least incredibly uninteresting. Not only that, it's extremely rushed. I really liked the first ten minutes, it introduced Emma Roberts' character in a subtle way that I haven't seen before, and I really liked that. But the second she and Highmore officially meet it goes straight down the toilet bowl. Their relationship is incredibly rushed, with them suddenly being best friends within a couple days. I understand that sometimes people just click with each other right off the bat, but even then it takes time to develop a real relationship. This movie doesn't have that. It just jumps right in to it. Maybe if they had better chemistry I'd be more forgiving, but they really don't have much. I think they could work well together in a better movie, but not in this one. There was one part when they first start hanging out when Highmore's characters asks Roberts something right out of the blue. No context, no previous information given to us as the audience to even know that the context of this question was a thing. It made sense when I thought a bit more about it, but still. It was really out of the blue and random. There were a couple side characters that were treated with some level of importance from time to time, like we as an audience were supposed to care. But these characters only showed up when it was convenient for the story, so they were never really developed. And yet here they are, crying away and expecting us to care. It's actually the same case with the main characters. I didn't care about any of them because they were so rushed. Then this conflict pops up at one point towards the end and every character makes this massive assumption about the situation that I never would have, nor do I think anyone else would. And yet that assumption turned out to be correct. Funny thing is, that scene was also super underdeveloped and rushed. What a surprise.Throughout the story Highmore's character acts in ways that I am certain are hinting at his slight depression. I don't really have any knowledge on mental health, but even I could figure this out. Yet the characters in the movie are so incredibly heartless and stupid about it. Highmore has a legitimate reason for something involving his depression and his superiors make fun of him for it (yes, there is a scene where he is referred to as 'pathetic' for being depressed). Seriously? I excused it the first time because I know some people are too stupid even to see something like that, but then it happens again. Normally it doesn't get on my nerves when I dislike a character, but in this case it was just sheer stupidity and lack of understanding of people on the part of the writers. Overall The Art of Getting By is absolute trash. Thankfully it's only about 80 minutes long, but it's a drag to sit through. Every minute painstakingly slides along a lengthy stretch of 30 grit sandpaper with nails and poisonous thorns sprinkled across, whilst indie music plays in the background. In the end I wouldn't recommend this movie.

I'm rarely giving 10/10 for new movies, but this movie really surprised me. I've seen a fare share of movies portraying the time you graduate, learn life, question everything, fall in love and get hurt in love etc. This was the first movie that got it right - for me - and it took 20 years for someone to put it on screen. I can't say that I could relate to George 100 %, but I can honestly say that I have experienced quite a few of the situations, conversations and feelings that take place in this movie.I liked this movie for a bunch of reasons. First being of course that it felt accurate. Second is that there are very few stereotypes, all characters you see here are individuals. 99 % of the time when you see a George-type character in a mainstream movie, he's a "likable geek". George is not a geek, he's accepted - if he wants to be accepted. He's not a cast away. It's his own choice to be alone with his thoughts. George has his doubts about the world, but he has no need to retaliate. He seems quite content in his melancholy, thoughts and seemingly solitary world - until of course - he meets the right girl.One great thing is that there are no bullies in this movie and there aren't really bad people here, maybe a few that are not given much screen time. There's mostly good people that make mistakes. You also don't find a sporty, a brain, a comedian, the one who smokes joints.. etc. There are plenty of scenes that do not follow the path that mainstream movies do, and that's a really really good thing.The actors and actresses do mostly a great job. There have been reviews that say the opposite, but I feel they were quite natural and believable most of the time. There are dialogs that don't feel perfectly timed or acted, but in my opinion not all conversations are in the real life.I think the script was great, many have said it's not, but I think it was great. There are many scenes that don't exactly feel realistic or correct to many, but they are "corrected" later in the script. I'll take one (major) example. George feels the weight of the world in his back, all the dying and overpopulation etc feels heavy and makes him feel nothing he does is purposeful. Later on in the movie he finds out (by himself) a thing or two that his parents haven't told him and eventually his mother tells him they didn't want to occupy his mind and confuse him with the bad news so that he could concentrate in school etc. Instead, George occupies his mind with the bad news of the world. So, once he get's his mind occupied with something he can actually have control over, he starts to do something with his life. So, sheltering a smart kid like George from family issues may not have been such a good idea after all - or maybe it was.. this is never underlined in the movie, but there are many themes like this that go beneath the script.The only thing that was a bit off in this movie is the ending. It's a tad Hollywood. It may have been better being a bit different. But it's OK as it is, I drop my score to 9,5/10 because of the ending, but I'll round it up to ten anyway.This isn't for the mainstream audience, there will be many who do not relate to George. But I'm quite sure there are many who will appreciate this movie.

George Zinavoy (Freddie Highmore) is an apathetic loner. He is doing nothing the whole year and is in danger of expulsion unless he can do all the work. Sally (Emma Roberts) is popular and a complicated rebel. She is an MPDG. They cut class together. She treats him like a kid, but is there more?Gavin Wiesen's first full length feature is a NY indie with a couple of great young actors, great NY locations, but a standard boy meets girl story. Freddie Highmore has the look of weak kid. Emma Roberts has one great cruel manipulative emotionally vicious scene. The ending wraps up too well. It's a good first time effort for Gavin.

With nothing to watch one evening, I happened to stumble across this little film called The Art of Getting By and I fairly enjoyed watching it. Now I don't expect much from 'such' films, if you know what I mean, and this film doesn't disappoint.The story is of a complicated teenager who has much better things in mind to appreciate than doing mindless homework. Then comes the very straight-forward, clichéd heroine who is plain ordinary and falls for this extra ordinary guy. They share some moments and then enters another older hero and now the heroine shifts attention.The cinematography is a saving grace. It makes the film a lot tolerable. So is the music. Story and screenplay is kept as free from excess drama as possible and the editing is good too. Emma Roberts the best performance of all in an ordinary role. She keeps her character just that way and that is why she is the best. And also, she looks very beautiful. Freddie Highmore is perfectly cast but his performance mainly suffers from his shaky character. Rest of the cast is adequate and forgettable.Director Gavin Weisen surely had some serious character stuff in mind but the story never fully develops into something but instead goes round and round over some done-to-death situations.