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Memory Lane: 1960s Boyhood in Sweet Coming-of-Ager That's What I Am

Comments (0) By Michelle Orange Wednesday, Apr 27 2011

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That’s What I Am
Directed by Michael Pavone
Samuel Goldwyn Films and W Studios
Opens April 29

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Those of us old enough to remember The Wonder Years(cough) will recognize the structure and style of That’s What I Am, a winsome reminiscence of early-1960s suburban boyhood, in which lessons of tolerance share time with the first stirrings in a young man’s pants. Just entering high school, Andy Nichol (Chase Ellison) has a favorite teacher (Ed Harris), a favorite girl (Mia Rose Frampton), and a big red target (Alexander Walters) onto which he and the entire student body can project their anxieties. “Big G,” as the latter is called, is a ginger Frankenstein with huge prosthetic ears; even Andy, a sensitive aspiring writer, has assimilated the poor treatment G receives as normal. Director and writer Michael Pavone establishes an unhurried pace, setting up a series of thematic T-balls (don’t be a bully; live and let live) and then mildly knocking them into the infield. Greg Kinnear provides the narration as modern-day Andy, his dulcet, small-town radio voice a good fit for a story of bittersweet nostalgia. The writing hits the weeds on occasion, but Pavone evokes with feeling adolescence as a series of outlandish physical punishments and sweetly remembered firsts.

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1 comments
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Iliv2000
Iliv2000

It is sad that such a movie doesn't have any comment yet. Have American society moved at least one step from sixties by now? Brilliant movie!

 
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