Very well executed

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Elle (Aly Michalka) and Joy (AJ Michalka) are sisters singing duo. The movie is narrated by their stillborn middle sister Emily (Saoirse Ronan). It's their last week on Weepah Way. Their mother Lynn (Mimi Rogers) is divorced from their cheating father John (Gil Bellows). The sisters suffer from OCD. Elle is the flighty one and she's throwing a party before they set off on a concert tour. Joy still admires their father and invited him to the party. They spend their day visiting friends and sneaking into their old home to swim. Then Joy tells Elle about a scare.This movie seems like a bunch of improvised scenes. This is hit and miss. There is incredible skills needed to do improvised dialog. The girls can really talk fast but comedy does require some timing. They almost do it sometimes but they're going too fast. Jon Heder is pretty funny in his one scene. I do like the real-life Michalka sisters who play an alternate version of themselves. They always bring good energy to their performances. This is a valiant attempt at something a little more impressive. Writer/director Stephen Ringer brings a breezy Californian feel but it ends up too rambling to maintain the tension all the way through.

If I could, I would give this movie more stars. I found it to be a really wonderful and touching as well as a hilariously real movie. Indie films always have a top place in my heart and this was just one I fell in love with. From laughing to crying, this film is definitely a must see. I've always been an Aly & AJ fan and am happy to see them in another film together. I love their sisterly chemistry on and off screen and they're amazingly talented. Their sibling relationship in the movie was adorable and witty and comical. Their performance of their song in the movie was also incredibly beautiful. I don't think there was anything I disliked. Might not be a movie for everyone, but it was definitely one of my favorites!

This review will contain some spoilers. I have loved AJ and Aly's music and movies and television work ever since I was a kid. I have this loyal following of them, maybe because I've always found them relatable and because of how much their music impacted me when I was younger. Now 22, I have watched their adult ventures when I have the time, i.e. Grace Unplugged when it's nowhere near a film I would normally want to watch. I anxiously anticipated the release of 78violet's Hothouse that was leaked and never officially released. I bought this movie to support the sisters and also to see if more of the stuff they produce as real "adults" would be something I'd enjoy. This movie gave you a real sense of what it is like to be extremely close to another female, as a female. It's a bond between sisters and a bond between best friends alike, and the movie does a really good job of giving you the realistic feel of life, kind of in the style of Girls or Love, with a little bit of a dreamy touch to top it off. I just don't understand where the autobiographical story was supposed to take us. I think there were a lot of good moments in this movie. I really do. But I feel like there was no character development. I feel like nothing really happened, even though a lot did. I just wasn't invited to feel anything about it. It was weird watching a movie that seemed so like real life and being so detached from it. I feel like some of the humor was over the top, like the cum on the floor joke and some of the dialogue. I curse like a sailor, I love gross humour, but it just felt awkward here and not genuine in the slightest. That's it. That's the problem. The movie is aiming to be so organic but it just doesn't feel genuine. I think it was a beautiful movie, shot well and appropriately for the feel that seemed to be aimed for. I'll probably watch it a few more times to see if I warm up to it anymore - since I purchased it, I might as well. But I just don't see where this movie was supposed to take the viewer. Maybe that was the point? I don't know.Also, I think that a big theme was for the girls to realize that even if their work wasn't wildly, massively appreciated, that they should continue to produce art anyway. I was so disappointed when Hothouse never came out. I've waited years for new music from the sisters, googling 'aly and aj michalka new music' maybe once a year when I remembered how much I missed their songwriting. After the Hothouse video was released I was completely ecstatic and so happy to know I was going to get to hear new music. In the end, I listened to the leaked stuff after it became apparent they weren't releasing. I know all the words to every song and even know how to play some of the songs myself. I'm confused by the sister's actions in comparison to this running theme in the movie. I know I'm not the only fan like this. I wouldn't even consider myself a die hard one, but I'd still buy albums and maybe get to a show if there was every one by me. There are still fans who would support them. It might not be the big crowd they probably hope for, but I'm pretty sure at this point we've proved how reliable we all are over the years. In my opinion, a following that sincerely wants to be there is better than a hit single. Aly and AJ should do whatever the hell they want to do, regardless of who is watching. If that's staying out of music or not pursuing more films, awesome, and if it's getting back in, that's great too. I just hope they realize they do have people who appreciate what they do.

Cavernous sequences of trite dialogue build to Tarantinoesque levels of tension, repeatedly failing to pay off... (It didn't take long before I started praying that Kurt Russel would come shredding across the vineyard in his hotrod and mow these two idiots down). Is that seriously a '7.7' up there? (maybe I'm going blind) This is a movie about girls, by girls, for girls, archetyping girls, so girls who aren't quite sure what it means to be girls can finally just be girls.The epitome of narrowing construct - feminism's worst nightmare.Unimpressive at its best; bordering on nauseating at its worst.