Dear Zoe

"Dear Zoe" is a film about a girl coming to terms with their sister getting killed by a car, that's what it says it is anyway. But when I watched it, it felt like they just showed the sister getting hit by a car, then skipped into a new film. Like it was just a Family Guy cutaway or something. Then like 6 months later the main character Tess runs off to live with her Dad just for the hell of it, and falls in love with the guy living next door. The both of them spend the next few weeks smoking weed together, but instead of making them high the weed just makes them both giggle their heart out for some reason. Also I think that's pretty bad because it kind of glorifies cannabis use for younger viewers, I know the film is rated 15+ but I think the target audience probably is people from 12 - 16. They portray cannabis as a funny little drug that makes you laugh, which it really doesn't and can sometimes land you in a lot of bother if you're not careful with it. And on top of that given that it's a film targeted at children and young teenagers it's probably best just not to glorify smoking any substances. And at the end of the film, the main character Tess decides after a few months of smoking weed and drawing pictures it's time to go home to her rich Mother and Step-Dad. So she gets a lift home and when she's outside she dramatically collapses on her front lawn and smiles. This would be cool if she'd actually done something like changed her life or developed as a person, but she didn't. Tess just smoked weed, drew pictures and cried about everything the whole time. But I don't want to make the movie sound completely bad, the acting itself was pretty good, and the production of the film was great too. The only problem was just that the script was a bit silly. If this was a film made for TV I'd understand it a bit better because they don't need to have too much effort put into them, but this was released in theatres. But again, it was produced and directed fine, just not a great script. I feel like instead of a theatre film, this is more of a film to be shown on an unknown TV channel at 3pm on a random Tuesday.

Thank You. Thank You for writing that incredible novel Philip, Thank You everyone who worked on bringing this story to the screen. Your work has helped me on this journey of healing. There's so much broken inside me, but this, all of this, all you've done, has helped and will continue to help for the rest of my life. To anyone reading, if you're going through something, anything, I hope this work of art can bring-or has brought-you something tangible and special like it brought me. I decided to go and take in the film and novel just because of the name. There was a kind of a calling in it, an invite to take a moment and experience a story. I had no idea it would have so many effects on me, links to my life, lines on paper and screen that still resonate with everything before, and everything after. And all those drawings... how perfectly captured, created, drawn, made and *told*. Thank You for the Notebook, too.

Great movie. I really enjoyed and loved every second of it. Sadie Sink and Theo Rossi did an amazing job. It's really interesting the way they pulled out this story to be the way it should be told. What I mean by that is that they told a very uncomfortable story in very light way without making it hard to be watched or without making it to be something it shouldn't be. We don't have that much stories that are close to this one and that are made by really good actors. Nowadays we only have some sci-fi movies which are not connected to reality or the movies where we see way too much romance. For me this is the movie which should be an example for more movies to be made like this and on similar topics.

Dear Zoe is a mixed bag. Sadie Sink obviously gives a fantastic performance, and she shows so much range. Her character is also taken on such an emotional journey throughout the film and everything related to her learning to move on with life after the death of her younger sister is excellent. The movie also was very well directed, so many shots looked beautiful, and the transitions especially early on in the movie were awesome. However the script of the movie leaves quite a bit to be desired. The dialogue is clunky, the love story is very forced and the age gap is questionable to say the least. Story wise the best part of the movie was the relationship between Tess (Sadie) and her father, it felt very natural and the two had great chemistry. The movie had some good emotional scenes and nice performances but the lackluster script holds it back from greatness.

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source: Dear Zoe

Sadie Sink inhabits the character of Tess, a teenaged girl going through a difficult transition in her life. A horrible accident upends her normal existence and shatters her family on the exact same day America experiences the shock and terror of the 9/11 attacks. Theo Rossi ("Emily the Criminal") also does good work as Tess's father in what could have been a cliched role if a lesser actor had played it. Newcomer Kweku Collins is also fine as a very (un)stereotypical boy-next-door and he and Sink display good and interesting chemistry in their scenes together. A word about the cinematography in this low budget indie and the word is beautiful. Most independent films simply don't look as nice as this one does. There's a great physical sense of Pittsburgh and its surroundings and I like how the enhanced visuals reflect Tess's heightened awareness during this intense time in her life. Dear Zoe has both heft and heart and it reveals important truths about both grief and guilt, and how we have to come to terms with these feelings in order to move on with our lives.

This was an overacted, poorly written melodrama that goes nowhere quick. You can tell the young lead actress is probably a capable performer but was grossly underserved by the script and feeble direction. The other actors did a passable job but nobody really stood out. The plot is simply not interesting enough, and the dialogue was cringeworthy in numerous places. Lots of hysterics, crying, yelling, you couldn't help but roll your eyes and wish you could change the channel on this soap opera that might have been a much better fit on something like the Lifetime channel than on a large screen in a theater.