{"id":21186,"date":"2020-09-02T20:43:31","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T03:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=21186"},"modified":"2020-09-02T20:43:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T03:43:31","slug":"words-on-bathroom-walls-feels-unbalanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=21186","title":{"rendered":"WORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS Feels Unbalanced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Roadside Attractions are releasing this feature at open cinemas\nand drive-ins.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teens looking for entertainment have an option this week\nwith Words on Bathroom Walls<\/em>, a new title based on a popular young adult\nnovel. The film attempts to juggle a typical teenage romance plot while dealing\nwith the subject of mental illness and attempting to add in a dash of eccentric\nhumor. It is admirable in its intentions and has some strong individual scenes,\nbut it does feel like there are too many disparate elements vying for attention.\nAs a result, the end product is tonally unbalanced.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adam (Charlie Plummer) is a teenager who dreams of becoming\na chef. Unfortunately, his struggles with schizophrenia have caused numerous\nroadblocks in accomplishing his goals. Prone to visions, paranoia and side\neffects from various medication treatments, he is reticent to talk to others\nabout his condition. One day, Adam has a particularly bad episode at school. He\nis expelled and fears that a future career in the kitchen may be unattainable.\nHis concerned mother (Molly Parker) and stepdad (Walter Goggins) force him into\ntaking a new experimental drug and continuing his education at a Catholic\nschool. Initially, the pills have a positive effect and Adam befriends a\nstudent named Maya (Taylor Russell), as well as Father Patrick (Andy Garcia).\nHowever, when strange side effects begin kicking in, the condition begins\nthreatening his relationships and future all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plummer is faced with a difficult task in depicting the\nvarious mental states of his character. Early on, the filmmakers have Adam\nspeak directly to the camera from a therapist\u2019s chair as he lets them in on his\ncondition, although it is done mostly to deliver introductory exposition and\ndoesn\u2019t occur as frequently in later sections of the movie. The performer does\nwell familiarizing viewers with his world. Smaller moments, like when Adam is\ndealing with medication side effects like ticks, are also handled effectively. Additionally,\nthere are impressive visuals used to display some of the hallucinations that\nthe character experiences. And, there\u2019s some plausible conflict between the\nprotagonist and his guardians, whom he feels are invading his privacy and too forceful\nin their attempts to find an effective treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While some of these moments create effective drama, the\npicture tries at times to have it both ways, mixing heavy drama about mental\nillness with doses of dark humor. It\u2019s one thing for Adam to use\nself-deprecating humor about his unusual situation. However, it\u2019s less convincing\nwhen Adam\u2019s exaggerated alter egos appear (one friendly, one angry and another\namorous) to provide wisecracks and offer advice. These scenes appear to be\nplayed for laughs, but there\u2019s something off about the scenario and their\ncomments and behavior don\u2019t result in many laughs.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the movie does feel obligated to try and wrap things up\nin a conventional way. The main idea being communicated is that the protagonist\nhas to learn to let his family and close friends share what he\u2019s going through.\nIn doing so, he can address these issues and help diminish the voices in his\nhead. It\u2019s a nice thought and some of the revelations and conversations (particularly\nbetween Adam and his stepdad) are sweetly rendered. Still, as one person after\nanother expresses their admiration and understanding for the protagonist, it all\nbegins to play as overly sentimental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a tricky subject to tackle and one admires the\nefforts taken by the cast and crew to bring some weight, seriousness and\ncreative visuals in order to put viewers inside the head of its lead character.\nStill, there are other aspects, particularly the more overtly humorous moments\nand romance, that aren\u2019t as effective. The overall feeling is that while Words\non Bathroom Walls<\/em> may make an impression on its teenage demographic, the\nfilm will not make the grade with older viewers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roadside Attractions are releasing this feature at open cinemas and drive-ins. Teens looking for entertainment have an option this week with Words on Bathroom Walls, a new title based on a popular young adult novel. The film attempts to juggle a typical teenage romance plot while dealing with the subject of mental illness and attempting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[198,1400,4141,6251,14148,17766,19625,19651,23945,24471,24472,24473,24474,24661],"class_list":["post-21186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-198","tag-andy-garcia","tag-charlie-plummer","tag-drama","tag-molly-parker","tag-schizophrenia","tag-taylor-russell","tag-teen","tag-walter-goggins","tag-words-on-bathroom-walls","tag-words-on-bathroom-walls-film-review","tag-words-on-bathroom-walls-movie-review","tag-words-on-bathroom-walls-review","tag-young-adult"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}