That's What I Am (2011)

So much average

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I know this movie from WWE studio I jus got skeptical from very beginning. I thought that this movie will tell a story about a wrestler or something but surprisingly it was tell about Preteens story with all stuff like bullying, monkey love, etc. Complete with lovable teacher who will left at the end of the movie. I don't know is it true that the story is based on the true event, and I don't care either. I like it. Not bizzare but I got the message, I got the point. I smile, laugh, pitty, and angry when the movie want me to. That's mean it so entertaining. Even maybe this movie like they don't know who's the audience. It too annoying and cheese for adults but also it was too explicit for childrens...

This is a tender film because it deals with kids in eighth grade, just before high school, at the tender age of 14. At that age you have a certain number of kids, boys but also girls, who are cruel like devils, just because they are meeting with some difficulty in their life they cannot deal with and their pride made them take it down upon others and bully them. Cruelty is the most common goody these kids are living with and sharing.The film is done from the point of view of a rather short guy, shy and who is used to be told by his father he did not do what he was doing well enough and having to let his father finish it. He dreams of kissing the best-looking girl in the school. And his luck or rather un-luck, though it might have been his best luck ever, was to be paired by his literature teacher with the tallest, ugliest, red-headed smartest and most bullied guy in the class, in the school.That's the basics of the kid's story. One kid who is the friend of the main bully, is such an idiot and a racist that he panics one day because he is touched by the girl with dental braces. He then attacks her to get the curse off when the red-headed giant monster, Big G for most students, Stanley for some, gets him off his prey. That little, short small-minded imbecile just spreads the rumour that the literature teacher is a homo, as they said in 1965. His father and his mother are dumb enough not to know a rumour is nothing but a rumour and their kid has the worst possible complex imaginable. The teacher refuses to deny it and prefers leaving the school at the end of the school year to satisfy the rumourmongers. That's the gay part of the film. In 1965 the word "homo" was one of the worst accusations you could level at anyone but particularly at teachers and a rumour was just as good as proof.Don't believe that has entirely changed. Not yet, far from it. Look at the aftermath of the most segregational law I know, DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act enacted in 1996 under Bill Clinton. One of the two anti-gay acts he had passed in Congress and he enacted. One is down DADT, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and DOMA is still there and has produced the most ridiculous segregation you can imagine in a developed country today. They can't segregate for racial reasons or national reasons, though they still go on for religious reasons, but they compensate their frustration with segregation for sexual orientation reasons. And they block the only thing they can block: marriage.The film is eloquent about that kind of bigotry. The teacher has to run. The students can offer him a carful of flowers at the end of the year that won't change the bigots. They say homosexuality is a catching disease. But bigotry is not a disease and it is unmendable. Better reserve your place in a crematorium because that's alas the only solution. With time some may yield, but the die-hard bigots will only be satisfied with the smell of fire and grilled human flesh. Better be theirs after all since they like it.The students of course are hardly concerned by the rumour and they carry on with their business: kissing the girls they want to kiss, singing if they want to sing, desiring a life of achievement and success. The bullies generally end badly. In this film they did and it is supposed to be a true story so it is a good thing the main bully managed to get 10-15 years of state-paid vacation in a state penitentiary.Such stories happen everyday in schools, but unluckily a fair share of them end up badly and I am absolutely ashamed with it. We are still far away from a society of love when hatred and bigotry is still so present: Forty-one US states have banned marriage for same-sex couples in a way or another. Forty-one reasons not to vote for the Mormon Romney since the Mormon Church considers homosexuality as a disease that has to be cured with all possible means. Just like scientology by the way. Good morning all the bigots.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

A coming-of-age story that follows 12-year-old Andy Nichol (Chase Ellison), a bright student who, like most kids his age, will do anything to avoid conflict for fear of suffering overwhelming ridicule and punishment from his junior high school peers.That's what I am is a WWE film, which caught my attention because the film was actually amazing! The film, acting, and everything is all very real and captures middle school just as it is. I was very surprised by this and wish the average was a little higher than a 7. Parents to kids: The film touches very deep and suggestive materials that some might find no suitable. Not a problem for me, but as seeing how people can get a little strict about that stuff, just calling it out there. The acting is very good and very real and they took as I can see a long time trying to capture the emotions. Not really that great as I put it, but they did a very well job. And even to add on to that, this is a WWE film which is a big step up for them and if they could continue making movies like this, that'd be great. So. I highly recommend this to anyone who well has good taste in movies and can learn to surpass the WWE sign popping up before the movie. 7/10.

It's hard to not be struck by the obvious similarities between this movie and the television show The Wonder Years. The vintage setting, the baritone voice-over, the main character who survives middle school by avoiding bullies and geeks as much as possible, lusts for an 'out-of-his-league' girlfriend, and goes home to an un-user-friendly father and patient, loving mother.This week's episode is about a red-haired geek who looks like one of the Walton children. He is paired up with the main character for a project by a wise teacher. Things go wrong, rumours fly, and accusations are made that the teacher is a 'homo'. I don't know what is more difficult to believe, that 13 year olds didn't know what a 'homo' was in 1965, or that bullies would cower in fear from a tall, skinny geek.The movie isn't bad, it's probably even 'sweet' for those who didn't grow up on the Waltons and/or The Wonder Years and can't compare the productions. But it is undeniably maudlin and should be approached with caution. I know some will think I shouldn't have seen the film if I don't like these types of movies. That isn't the point. There are good and bad versions of this type of coming of age film and this is a middle-of-the-road version which is why I gave it 5 out of 10.