Strong and Moving!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A Disappointing Continuation

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Great introduction to movies by Jonathan Glatzer, this movie told us a story that is unique and bizarre about a small town teacher who has recently died and those around him that was affected. As one of the students quotes every Action has a Reaction and that is what drives this movie forward.Olivia Thirbly and Josh Peck give us what we have come to expect from these young rising stars, Steve Coogan and Molly Shannon did not disappoint on most accounts, however I feel as though Hilary Duff needs to attune herself more proper to these roles. She is making the right steps into a direction out of Disney and I feel this will be an experience that will help her develop her acting talents for future roles.The premise of this movie is very interesting, it revolves around the death of Sam Calallucci a teacher of misfit students who all felt very "in love" with him because he allowed them to be themselves. This makes me wonder why they decided to change the title of the movie from "Safety Glass" to "What Goes Up" I think the latter had more commercial appeal but the first title seemed to bring out more emotion. This was a very character driven movie however some should have been touched upon a bit more such as Josh's character but a movie can only be so long before boring its audience.All in all I enjoyed this movie, it did have some weak links in acting and minor problems in its story which could have been written tighter if that wasn't what was the aim then some things should be left for interpretation in a more fashionable way.8/10~XTC

I thought it was the British who did Social Realism, but this film shows that Hollywood 'gets' it too. Steve Coogan is sturdy and the other actors also very believable.I can see why some people just wont 'get' this film at all, why some will wish to be offended by the side story of Challenger, nothing I can say will help you see the parallel yet opposite story that runs through the piece.I don't often go for this genre of American drama (sorry, but I generally prefer European drama), but I do like Steve Coogan so thought I would give this film a go. Within 10 minutes I was hooked and embroiled into this little world that is so different and at times uncomfortable.I gave an 8, it would have been 9 but I was a bit confused by the newspaper cuttings Campbell Babbitt took from the pin board in Sam's flat, they were important to the story but flashed past too quickly for me to understand the relevance. I look forward to seeing it again to clear this up.

Honestly this should have re-edited and made into satire - it really has all the hallmarks. Kooky isn't comedy if you're just baffled, and we were.Pretentious and so divorced from any sense of self it's Emo on Acid sensibilities may suit a number of people but we couldn't see the point at all.The plot about a reporter whose life is on the skids, and goes to visit New Hampshire only to find more disasters waiting for him at the school he's visiting, is very weak. the characters are entirely one dimensional and the whole film takes forever to say or do anything.Someone out there will love this - it will hit a chord with someone - but Steve Coogan used to make parodies of this sort of clap trap and really it tries way too hard to a cool oddity and we were just left bemused and bored - sorry.

I was privileged enough to see this film with one of the producers tonight in Las Vegas. I went with some trepidation as I had heard from my DIL, who's the producer's niece, that while she thought the first cut was good, it had some issues. And unfortunately, I am very critical when it comes to movies due to my writing background.I have to say I was truly amazed at the quirkiness and depth of this story. Yes, it did have some issues. There were places where I would have liked to have more in-depth characterization, there were places I thought the pacing was slow. The acting was good and dead on with what characters had on their plates. And in all honesty, this is the type of movie that comes out of the blue and ends up a cult favorite. It is that good in some strange way. Maybe part of this is because I can remember this week so well myself. I was just out of college and worked for Lockheed. We were on top of the world and it just came crashing down on us all that Thursday morning. I can't imagine having the whole week being that bad. LOL!Then again, maybe it's the part about being adult enough to understand when you've done something wrong yet there is no way to ever take it back. I remember this lesson well.Or maybe, it's just that the misfits are so true to life that I can empathize with what is going on in their lives. I know that I would have been devastated if my favorite teacher had died during my high school years no matter what the cause.Still, it would have been worse if said teacher had committed suicide. I was angsty enough then to have wondered if it were my fault in any way at all.Adding all these elements up, you have one heck of a story that can appeal to the masses. I have to say, I liked it.