Review of Lucas (2012) by Ryan V — 26 Dec 2011

"Lucas" is one of those movies that I really related to when I was younger, especially in junior high and early high school. I could relate to the title character in many ways, at times feeling like an outsider who was different (in his case being a scrawny uber-nerd and in mine being a Black kid in a predominantly white town and school) who many didn't give a chance to and some picked on. Lucas wants what everybody else seems to have whether it was popularity or the beautiful girl that he likes with all his heart, but who does not like him back. He came from a broken home like me, which made the movie have that much more influence on me. Like him I wanted to better myself and overcome adversity and obstacles. By the time I finished high school a lot changed and I became that much more of a confident, mature person who actually was elected student council president of the school despite my situation. Since that time I've continued to mature and reach higher. But there will always be a little bit of Lucas left in me...

*** POTENTIAL SPOILERS***.

Now after more than fifteen years since I last saw "Lucas", I am looking at it from non-adolescent eyes. I can tell you it is the typical 80s American "coming-of -age" movie that has the outsider kid at school who likes a girl, girl only thinks of him as a friend or nothing at all, kid becomes jealous when girl starts going out with the football jock, kid tries to prove his worthiness to said girl by joining the football team too. Some aspects of the plot definitely requires suspension of disbelief in order to set-up the emotional climax of the film (even in this last viewing I rolled my eyes a bit). But despite all this the movie's core of capturing what it feels like to be the outsider and the sense of frustration and helplessness that a person (especially a young adolescent) that can drive them to, quite frankly, do stupid immature things is very truthful.

"Lucas" is a who's who of now well known actors/personalities including Corey Haim (RIP), Charlie "Tigerblood" Sheen, Courtney Thorne-Smith (Melrose Place and According to Jim), Winona Ryder, Jeremy Piven, and last but not least Kerri Green who was in "The Goonies" (where is she now)?

All in all this movie was a formative one for me in adolescence, and I recommend it to anyone else who has been in a similar situation as Lucas or even me.

***SPOILER***.

One warning though, this movie has a MASSIVE slowclap violation at the end. Even just now I was embarrassed to watch it.... ;).

This is a three star movie by normal metrics, but bumped up to four for purely nostalgic reasons!