Tanner Hall (2011)

Through the years I have seen many movies about kids in high school, kids in private school, kids in military school, kids in camp, kids on a ball team, and kids in a dance group. This is not one of those movies.I searched for an outstanding personality, in a field of superb acting by the girls, but could not find one. Generally, the main actor "makes" the movie for me and this movie, it seems, did not have one. Kids coming of age almost always presents an interesting story and, I suppose if I had been a poor little rich girl that attended private school in New England, this movie may have appealed to me. But it made little sense, otherwise. This movie seemed to be more of a few days in the life of, rather than a complete story. The Facts of Life Movie, rated R, might be a better project for the producers.

I had never heard of this film before, so I gave it a go. The opening scene hooked me. It is very relatable. To see how Rooney looked before her major transformation was perhaps the most shocking thing about the film for me. She looked beautiful! My favorite characters turned out to be the minor characters. Her friends, Kate, played by Brie Larson, and Lucasta, played by Amy Ferguson, were the standouts. I was surprised to see Chris Kattan in a film like this, but his performance was outstanding. Same goes for Tom Everett Scott.This is called a coming-of-age tale, but really it's not that epic. It's small, quiet, and frankly chilling at parts, but it is worth an honest watch.

Tanner Hall"Tanner Hall" directed by Francesca Gregorini, and Tatiana Von Furstenberg is one of the most dramatically intense movies of this generation. It uses extreme situations to show more about teen life. As a teenager I loved it. I also liked that "up and coming" actress Rooney Mara was in it.Even though some of the events may never happen in real life it still is extremely intriguing. It shows a different area then what I'd been used to. There were some scenes I could relate to and others I couldn't but that made it highly interesting to see life from a different perspective. For example, a quote from the movie is "Lose your way. Find yourself." In the movie, the characters are constantly evolving; becoming more mature.Truthfully, what I really enjoyed about this movie was how different it is from my life there were some similarities, but it was quite enjoyable to see how other teens act. You saw them grow up some experimented with drugs, others with boy's. It was also interesting seeing Boarding school from a students perspective because I have been to regular school all my life. One part in the movie, they sneak out to go to a fair, this reminds me of a time when I was staying at a friends house and her, and a few other people, and me snook out and went to an abandoned house.On the other hand, certain individuals (one's who do not appreciate amazing movies) might not like it because the climax doesn't happen until the end and there is a lot of character building. These "certain individuals" also might like to connect to the movie more, or to have more in common with the characters. Some of the characters may have been a little common.Honestly, it interested me that they put Rooney Mara who is now famous for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". I thought she was perfect for this role the characters personality seemed to be very similar to her own. I loved seeing her in this movie and then seeing her in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" because it was amazing to see the difference in how she looked.Overall, it was an amazing movie, especially with a 3,000,000 dollar budget. I was a little worried when it didn't come out until a year after it was finished, but I definitely enjoyed it. Now go and watch it, and prepare to be amazed!

The draw card to Tanner Hall for me was Rooney Mara and Brie Larson, I really like Rooney in everything she has done and Brie is a scream in U.S.O.T, so I wasn't disappointed when I watched Tanner Hall. Yes it's kind of a story we have seen before, four young girls are facing the challenges of adult hood in different ways, they realize some things in life have consequences and sometimes those consequence aren't worth it. They are students at a country side boarding school that is very strict and only seems to inhabit star pupils.To me this movie has a very Sofia Copploa vibe to it, it seemed to me like a cross between The Virgin Suicides and the Eva Green film Cracks, the music, the colors, the actors, the setting, they all have a very Sofia Copploa tone to them, it's very atmospheric in that aspect. Georgia King is really the only character I didn't enjoy, she's so selfish and unhappy in her own life that she decides to bring everyone else down with her, but I suppose she's not a character that you're meant to like, King should tread very carefully as she is in danger if being typecast ad the bitchy English girl at a boarding school as she played a similar role in Wild Child. If there was one story I would have liked to see more it would have been Lucasta's sexual acceptance, it's a story that is I'm sure very common in all girl schools.Rooney Mara is so impressive, she is perfectly understated in her role, not too much, not enough, just right, and Brie Larson does her sassy attitude thing splendidly. I also loved Chris Kattan and Amy Sedaris, they brought so much humor to a serious film, and the director knew just when to have them in a scene, they were used to perfection.I'm not a girl and I enjoyed this film, but I have to say this is really only one for the gals, but it's great no matter what, highly recommended.