London Film Festival 13-28 October 2010
IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY [2010] dir Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden

IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY is most probably the best example of the culmination of every Hollywood studio's "indie film branch" teenage crisis movie ever made. It tells the story of Craig (Keir Gilchrist), a 16-year old teenager who is engulfed by depression and when is on the way to attempt suicide, decides to go check himself into a psych ward of the local hospital instead. He then is committed for a minimum of five days and guided by the seemingly normal Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), he begins to forget about all the pressures, school and girls mainly, and begins to enjoy life once again. On the way to "normalcy", he rooms with an Egyptian, Muqtada, who never leaves his bed, hangs around with Humble (obsession with beavers... no, not those, the animal) and Johnny, a guy who believes in the power of "I love you" for the wrong reasons. He also makes mistakes (wouldn't have movie without those) and falls in love with Noelle (Emma Roberts). Obviously.





Probably the best performance is given by Zach Galifianakis, he is able to come across with pathos as a man with nothing going for him, trying to get access to his daughter, but whose problems aren't too big to feel like he can't help someone else, which is what he does with Craig. Another good performance comes from Emma Roberts, her first proper outing as an actress not simply in kid market films.

Overall, this is an interesting, sparkling comedy-drama with the usual quirky characters. However, I am too taken in by this, like I said before this is just an amalgamation of all the teenage indie movies out there, nothing new is brought to the table (apart from the short animated pieces), but all to the sound of quite a good soundtrack. I really wanted to like this film, having read several reviews beforehand (something I don't usually do), but it just felt generic with some good performances.






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