Review of The Art of Getting By (2011) by Mike M — 11 Jul 2011

A noodly, sometimes gloopy emo-pic from debutant writer-director Wiesen that feels so much like a Zac Efron vehicle it's a surprise Efron himself isn't in it... Wiesen spends so long establishing his protagonist's sensitivity - he's ticklish! He listens to Leonard Cohen records! He sees things in Thomas Hardy novels his contemporaries can't! - that there's scarcely time for anything else, although a fair number of contrivances and implausibilities pop their heads up along the way: these are teenagers that somehow manage to drink in swish Manhattan bars without getting carded, and - even less likely - snaffle themselves a table in an upmarket eaterie on Valentine's night.

Blair Underwood makes an implausibly cool headteacher, and there's a negligible non-comeback for Silverstone as one of George's teachers. One edifying montage of schoolwork getting done suggests Wiesen (or, at least, his editors) deserves a second chance with more substantial material; otherwise, you're left wondering why cash-strapped studios would bother to fund a project like this, when it would surely be more cost-efficient to clip together scenes from the two dozen other features it resembles and release that instead.