A precocious teen (Sarah Bolger) has a sexual awakening and later find out that her self-centered parents had her when they were teenagers and their marriage is not as strong as she thought.
The film is the cinematic equivalent of a teenager, making everything more melodramatic than it needs to be, and impatient with the subtle details of life.
Simplistic plotting, pedestrian visuals and poorly-handled melodrama do lend the project a cheap, made-for-TV feel, which is underscored by the fact that Danes and Marsden don't seem obliged to turn in their best work.
The familiarity of the narrative - the movie does, after all, include such coming-of-age touchstones as first love and irresponsible parents - grows more and more problematic as time progresses...
It is as if chunks of the film had landed on the editing-room floor in a desperate, last-minute attempt to trim its length. Just when its parts should come together, "As Cool as I Am" crumbles to bits.
Time Out
June 04, 2013
Mayer doesn't find a way to make the ritual traumas of adolescence feel new again.
