My Summer as a Goth

source: My Summer as a Goth

Well, while the 2018 movie "My Summer as a Goth" was a watchable movie, it was, however, definitely not aimed at me as a target audience. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that director Tara Johnson-Medinger's movie was bad, it just fell short of my preferences. This movie from writers Tara Johnson-Medinger and Brandon Lee Roberts is a coming of age movie, hence the not aimed at me as the target audience, but I didn't know that prior to sitting down to watch the movie. I sat down to watch this as I too went through a Goth phase during my late teenage years. So I thought it might be a fun movie to watch and reminisce on days long gone. The storyline was adequately written, but the movie was just a bit out of my realm of usual means of entertainment. As such, then I found the movie to be somewhat mundane in its pacing and felt like it was just trotting onwards set on auto-pilot mode. The acting in the movie was good, although it was sort of difficult to take the Victor character serious, as he sort of looked like a spoof. It was nice to see a movie with this particular setting and topic though, as there aren't all that many of such movies readily available. Now, I am sure that there is a massive audience out there for "My Summer as a Goth", that being probably late teenage or young adult females. So of course the movie should find a base among a good amount of viewers. My rating of the movie, as it turned out to be something that I wasn't really looking for, much less impressed by, settles on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

It is clunky and the diologe delivered like real life speach which isn't easy to watch when we have cleaner and easier films in the mainstream. However there are webseries that are acclaimed that have done worse. Its sweet, fun and dark worth a watch.

This is very entertaining story with a lot of humor but with substance also. It's about a 16 year old girl whose father recently died and she feels a bit lost when her mother leaves her with her (hilariously wacky) grandparents for a while. The she meets the goth boy next door and the fun really begins.

I totally did not expect to enjoy this movie at all and came away totally enjoying it. It's the first film written and directed by Tara Johnson-Medinger, who definitely gets the tone and voice right for this coming of age film. After the sudden death of her father, Joey Javitts (Natalie Shershow) goes to stay with her grandparents for the summer while her famous author mother goes on a book tour. While there, she meets the goth neighbor Victor (Jack Levis) and decides to change everything. Oh to be sixteen again and Manic Panic-dying your scalp for the first time. My Summer As a Goth may not ring true for those deeply invested in the subculture, but for those of us on the outskirts or outside, it presents a charming tale of a young girl seeking to find herself. The supporting cast is really fun and I loved the way the movie chose to show text messages as animation. It starts streaming on demand on November 11. Check it out. I think you'll end up liking it too. Take it from someone who went to Darkwave nights every Sunday and felt out of place because he can't dance and didn't wear makeup. It gets the alienation right.

This is a very pretentious film full of (not only) goth clichés. The characters are poorly written, acting is hillariusly bad most of the time and the plot - despite its pretty standard coming-of-age formula - feels more like a series of events/scenes that together don't form anything coherent or atmospheric. Atmosphere and pacing are also nonexistent. If you're edgy teenager at the start of "goth/emo phase", you might perhaps enjoy this film. Otherwise, I don't think so... As for the goth subculture, it's portrayed in the most stereotypical and cheesy way possible (dancing at graveyard, suicidal talks, "Bela Lugosi's Dead", death jokes). I definitely don't recommend this film to anyone who wants to seriously understand goths and their culture. At least Joey's grandparents were kind of funny and the ending was somewhat sweet (nevertheless, still very cringy).

Trailer—My Summer as a Goth

My Summer as a Goth