X
- 2014
- PG-13
- Screen Media Films
- 1 h 26 m
- 2014
- PG-13
- Screen Media Films
- 1 h 26 m
Summary David Portnoy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a 15-year-old birding fanatic, thinks that he's made the discovery of a lifetime. So, on the eve of his father's remarriage, he escapes on an epic road trip with his best friends to solidify their place in birding history.
Directed By: Rob Meyer
Written By: Luke Matheny, Rob Meyer
- 2014
- PG-13
- Screen Media Films
- 1 h 26 m
- 2014
- PG-13
- Screen Media Films
- 1 h 26 m
A Birder's Guide to Everything
61
5.6
Where to Watch
Summary David Portnoy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a 15-year-old birding fanatic, thinks that he's made the discovery of a lifetime. So, on the eve of his father's remarriage, he escapes on an epic road trip with his best friends to solidify their place in birding history.
Directed By: Rob Meyer
Written By: Luke Matheny, Rob Meyer
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 Critic Reviews
61
67% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
33% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 Critic Reviews
61
67% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
33% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
In spite of its familiar outlines, director Rob Meyer's first feature benefits from an authentic script and performances.
The young actors shine revealing lights on their characters.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 User Ratings
5.6
43% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
36% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
21% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 User Ratings
5.6
43% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
36% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
21% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Although this movie is ostensibly about birdwatching, the fanatical enthusiasm for this hobby is actually the background for coming-of-age, dealing with grief, and relationships between parents and teenagers. David Portnoy, a 15-year-old played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, is still coping with the death of his mother and the fact that only 1.5 years after the tragedy, his father (James Le Gros) is marrying the attractive nurse (Daniela Lavender) who tended to his mother in her dying days. David's chief consolation for his loneliness and grief are his two best friends (Michael Chen and Alex Wolff) at school, with whom he has formed the school's birdwatching society—referred to as “birding” only if one is truly serious and devoted to the cause.
Instead of being comic-book geeks or computer nerds, this birding society of three, which barely qualifies them for club status at their high school, is obsessed with collecting knowledge and sightings of every kind of bird species they can possibly identify in their geographical area. They are fans and devotees of a famous ornithologist who lives nearby and has published books on the subject, Dr. Konrad (eccentrically played by Ben Kingsley). When the club meets at the school library, despite their inability to attract and hold new club members, they amusingly conform to Robert's Rules of Order even if the Chair is obliged to say, “The Chair recognizes himself.” Their goal is to list and recognize countless bird species, and if possible, to sight endangered species. The real prize is the almost non-existent chance of sighting a bird that is supposed to be extinct, which David is sure he has one day when a strangely colored duck lands in the road in front of his bicycle.
The threesome set out to find the invaluable duck, which they hope has migrated to the nearest wildlife refuge area, and in so doing, David escapes his father's house the weekend before the wedding. The boy is haunted by memories of his deceased mother, an expert birder who taught him her skills, and is also awkwardly establishing tentative romantic relations with his first girlfriend (Katie Chang). His disappointment in his father's decision to re-marry so soon has put a pronounced strain on their relationship.
Although lacking the sentimentality and misty-eyed idealism of say, The Summer of '42, this coming-of-age story has a certain charm, as the scholarly pursuit of birdwatching by teenagers who have all the time in the world to perfect their art provides an unusual and interesting twist.
Report
The brusque teen humor, underpinning turmoil and sentiment all seem to be pulled and massaged from the same organic whole, and that's refreshing in a genre so often built on gimmicks and stereotypes.
Meyer and Luke Matheny's script is full of the kind of nit-picky detail one hears when birders converse, and milks some life lessons out of philosophical differences between "listers" and "watchers."
The film exhibits strong character interplay and resides in an unconventional milieu, in effect turning rote material into something that feels decidedly eccentric.
There is enough of a simple charm to A Birder's Guide To Everything that there are worse things you could do with your hour and a half. The lead teens in particular give the material a realness that may not have been there on the page, and the filmmakers know enough not push the quaint story beyond the safe parameters it operates in.
While it doesn't quite encompass everything, the film's still a bit too busy for its own good.
It's fun to see how people obsess with nature, and in this case birds. They're young and they already know what they want to be. *sounds like a shrink, huh? The plot is slow as I can predict, yet it's absorbing and what is more the view is great. Love all the screen. And that Spanish boy named Timmy is so hilarious, but unfortunately nasty. However, he's the one who really lights up the movie. I like him
Report
Seriously, what's a birder's guide to everything in this movie??? Why, Hollywood, why, all teen movies needs to be about sex? This could have been 10/10 if the director stayed on with the title of the movie.
Report
The niche that A Birder's Guide to Everything seems to strive for is a blend of coming-of-age film and a celebration of birder culture. Sadly, the movie focuses less on the latter, the more esoteric and interesting area of focus, and hones it's attention on adolescent angst, as well as the grief of losing a loved one. While Meyer's work here is admirably quite a calm and, I guess, contemplative (?) exploration of youth, it is in equal measure, and maybe because of it's reserve, practically devoid of personality. Ben Kingsley adds some much needed dynamic qualities to a character that is hardly in the film more than 10 minutes. Aside from his grace-notes, each actor does their best with the sub-par material, straining to give life to what are essentially caricatures. Another film similar in subject is a documentary that aired on HBO last year called Birders: The Central Park Effect. It clocks in at about half the time and goes extensively into the more interesting subject from which A Birder's Guide to Everything derives it's title, but nothing in the area of passion or insight. There was an element involving the young female lead that I initially hoped was going to unfold without dipping into the cliched trope of having her serve as the male lead's romantic interest and nothing more, but I was wrong. It is pleasant and scenic enough, and the movie doesn't make any egregious errors that derail the entire picture, but neither does it take risks or attempt to distinguish itself from a crowd of better coming-of-age movies (and birding films, too, for that matter).
Report
Production Company
Dreamfly Productions,
Escape Pictures,
Lavender Pictures,
There We Go Films,
dreamFly Productions
Release Date Mar 21, 2014
Duration 1 h 26 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline Find your reason to fly.
Awards
Cleveland International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Tribeca Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
