- Summary: A look at the lives of a group Bronx teenagers who ride the same bus route, and how their relationships change on the last day of school.
- Director: Michel Gondry
- Genre(s): Drama
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 16
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Mixed: 5 out of 16
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Negative: 2 out of 16
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90To call this thrillingly original, deeply felt movie a coming-of-age story would be to insult it with cliché. It’s much more the story, or rather a series of interlocking, incomplete stories, about what it feels like to be a certain age and to feel caught, as the title suggests, between the desire to be yourself and the longing to fit in.
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88A delirious representation of incipient personalities in bloom, its form as amorphous and reckless as the vibrant youths it portrays.
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80Moving somewhat obviously toward denouement, the film hits a false note or two. But mainly it's exhilarating in its refusal to make smooth what's messy, inchoate and tenaciously alive.
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67The problem with The We And The I: Gondry is focused more on moments than on the film as a whole.
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60Gondry's argument – that pack mentality crushes individual expression – follows a similarly predictable route, but there's enough of his signature playfulness (especially in the use of mobile-phone footage to present flashbacks) to keep the journey entertaining.
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Mar 21, 201350It's a fun ride for the most part, with a bumping soundtrack and genuine moments of warmth and heartbreak. But one can't help but wish Gondry had simply let the camera roll, and let the kids speak for themselves.
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25Muddled, muffled and mixing empty comedy with empty dramatics, The We and the I is an abject failure.