Homework is not an Art
The latest summer offering from mini-studio Fox Searchlight, The Art of Getting By (re-titled after having premiered at Sundance under the hopelessly generic title Homework) is little more than a paint-by-numbers version of the modern day ‘independent’ film: superficially quirky, with just enough surface eccentricity and faux-oddball characters to mask the supremely banal story lying underneath. Unlike previous releases from the studio, the film makes no real attempt to break ground aesthetically or emotionally, and thus remains a fundamentally uninteresting and uninvolving work.
Written and directed by first-timer Gavin Wiesen, the film centers on depressed high school student George Zinavoy (Freddie Highmore, the kid from Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory all grown up) as he navigates his senior year while undergoing a crippling existential crisis. We know it’s existential because George tells us explicitly that everything dies alone, and thus everything is meaningless. As such, George avoids doing his homework, reads Camus in the cafeteria, and smokes on the rooftop of his New York prep school – call him a rebel without a real problem. One day he saves Sally (Emma Roberts, Julia’s niece, most recently seen in Scream 4) from suspension for her own rooftop smoking violation – kids these days! – and the two become friends; since this is a movie, though, romance is never far from the teens’ minds.
And so begins what seems like an endless ‘indie film’ montage, as George and Sally cut class, go to parties, meet at bars, and generally do things that no other prep school kids in the city do (the film is apparently set in an alternate version of New York City where the drinking age is 17), all set to an increasingly annoying ‘indie rock’ soundtrack, including The Shins, The Boxer Rebellion, and, in one particularly emo scene – George lies on his bed, listening to the same song over and over again – Leonard Cohen himself. It’s as if all sense of originality has gone out of picking a movie soundtrack these days; but of course, ‘originality’ is hardly a word that can be applied to this film.
The film eventually tries its hand at real drama, though, forcing George’s carefree ways to catch up to him and providing a rival suitor (Michael Angarano, a talented actor who should be in better films) for Sally’s hand in… whatever. Is there any real doubt that George will end up with the girl and solve his crisis by the film’s end, though? Of course, there’s a familiarity to these kinds of faux-dramatic stories, where the protagonist is provided just enough obstacles to overcome in order to build character, without having to deal with any real hardship, but it’s hardly welcome in this age of troubling times and problematic narratives. Aren’t independent films supposed to take chances? This one takes none at all.
Oh, I almost forgot. George is an aspiring artist – hence the ‘art’ of the title – and Angarano’s character Dustin, an abstract painter/alumnus of George’s high school, starts out as his mentor (before being awkwardly shifted into the rival suitor role he fills out for the last act of the film) – thus allowing the film to make some not-so-subtle commentary on modern art and the ridiculousness of abstract painting. As Dustin guides George through a modern art museum, commenting on pieces which clearly mean nothing to George, you can practically hear the director chuckling in our ears. Of course, true love is the only cause truly worthy of art (for George’s final art project, a piece meant to be ‘true’ and ‘authentic’, he paints a picture of Sally), and thus everything else is bullshit. Much like this film.
