Nothing is as simultaneously sad, darkly funny, and enlightening as someone who has peaked in high school. Part of you wants to bust out laughing as they talk about their teenage BFF as if they were still friends, not realizing that they're nearing middle-age and are speaking with a voice that is sugar-coated with debilitating denial. But the other part of you wants to kneel down and pray that your greatest accomplishment won't be defiantly doing doughnuts in the parking lot of senior prom. Let's face it; no one wants their best years to be behind them instead of directly ahead.
Nearing 30, Megan (Keira Knightley) doesn't yet realize that she has, excuse the term just one more time, peaked in high school. The majority of her friends have lustrous careers, blissful marriages, and Instagram famous kids, but she, despite a plentiful college education, is still dating her high school sweetheart and is still working as a sign-shaker for her father's business while she pretends like she's planning for a future career. She has no motivation and no urgency, but when her boyfriend (Mark Webber) proposes, she has a sort of panic attack, telling him she's going to away for a week for a career fair when she's actually wandering around the city trying not to lose it.
That's when she stumbles into Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz), a smug 16-year old who she meets outside a liquor store. Megan knows that she's much too old to be palling around with a hormonally-charged young woman, but, desperate to escape her adult responsibilities, she spends the week at Annika's house. Annika's father, Craig (Sam Rockwell), is concerned; like most parents, he's only a little worried that his daughter is hanging out with an adult as if she's a gal pal with a mutual respect for One Direction. But as Megan's responsibilities become increasingly real, and Craig's presence becomes a mounting temptation, she begins to rethink her life, wondering if it really is time to change things up after nearly three decades of unrelenting comfort.
Lynn Shelton (Humpday, Your Sister's Sister) can get away with nearly anything she wants; with one eye focused on realism and the other shrouded in a slightly sarcastic tone, even the most meager material is enlivened by an energizing, intimate voice. Laggies is one of her most commercial films; it is the first project she didn't write herself (that credit goes to Andrea Seigel, who is making her screen writing debut), and the first to feature an ensemble of well-established stars. While slightly conventional in comparison to her many asymmetric works, Laggies is always a pleasure.
It is an authentic study of someone who is having a serious identity crisis, but it remains persistently charming even when the film threatens to go down the road more traveled by. Knightley, who has spent the last few years confronting herself with offbeat roles, is as pathetic and likable as Megan should be; her decisions are poor, but anyone who has lived life as though they were a teenager for nearly a decade can only be cut some slack. Rockwell steals scene after scene as the smart alecky Craig, and Moretz, continuing to impress throughout her short career, is appealing as the unsettled Annika.
Engagingly witty but unafraid to answer some hard questions about the nobodies who are forced to deal with the perils of a damning quarter-life crisis, Laggies can be lightweight and it can also go deep; it isn't just surface, and that's why it doesn't drift away in a sea of indie movie witchery.
Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com
Nearing 30, Megan (Keira Knightley) doesn't yet realize that she has, excuse the term just one more time, peaked in high school. The majority of her friends have lustrous careers, blissful marriages, and Instagram famous kids, but she, despite a plentiful college education, is still dating her high school sweetheart and is still working as a sign-shaker for her father's business while she pretends like she's planning for a future career. She has no motivation and no urgency, but when her boyfriend (Mark Webber) proposes, she has a sort of panic attack, telling him she's going to away for a week for a career fair when she's actually wandering around the city trying not to lose it.
That's when she stumbles into Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz), a smug 16-year old who she meets outside a liquor store. Megan knows that she's much too old to be palling around with a hormonally-charged young woman, but, desperate to escape her adult responsibilities, she spends the week at Annika's house. Annika's father, Craig (Sam Rockwell), is concerned; like most parents, he's only a little worried that his daughter is hanging out with an adult as if she's a gal pal with a mutual respect for One Direction. But as Megan's responsibilities become increasingly real, and Craig's presence becomes a mounting temptation, she begins to rethink her life, wondering if it really is time to change things up after nearly three decades of unrelenting comfort.
Lynn Shelton (Humpday, Your Sister's Sister) can get away with nearly anything she wants; with one eye focused on realism and the other shrouded in a slightly sarcastic tone, even the most meager material is enlivened by an energizing, intimate voice. Laggies is one of her most commercial films; it is the first project she didn't write herself (that credit goes to Andrea Seigel, who is making her screen writing debut), and the first to feature an ensemble of well-established stars. While slightly conventional in comparison to her many asymmetric works, Laggies is always a pleasure.
It is an authentic study of someone who is having a serious identity crisis, but it remains persistently charming even when the film threatens to go down the road more traveled by. Knightley, who has spent the last few years confronting herself with offbeat roles, is as pathetic and likable as Megan should be; her decisions are poor, but anyone who has lived life as though they were a teenager for nearly a decade can only be cut some slack. Rockwell steals scene after scene as the smart alecky Craig, and Moretz, continuing to impress throughout her short career, is appealing as the unsettled Annika.
Engagingly witty but unafraid to answer some hard questions about the nobodies who are forced to deal with the perils of a damning quarter-life crisis, Laggies can be lightweight and it can also go deep; it isn't just surface, and that's why it doesn't drift away in a sea of indie movie witchery.
Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com