newmediatalent
1-13. Alexandra Danielle "Lexi" Ainsworth (Jessica Burns)"A Girl Like Her" effortlessly achieves what "13 Reasons" reaches for so stridently – and expensively -- but will never attain, thanks to the award-caliber talent of its star, Lexi Ainsworth, who takes a decent film to the next level with her total mastery of one of the more difficult raw skills in an actor's repertoire: the ability to cry on cue. One need not have seen her as the abused girlfriend of Keifer on General Hospital (where she dances on the career dumpster of the writers who fired her in 2011), and later the stalked-by-her-lesbian college professor, Parker, which netted her a daytime Emmy. One should not see her fine performance in So This Is Christmas, a film with drug dealers and a shootout never crossing path with Eric Roberts, though her turn as Sara Cowan, where she is bleached blonde to play a character whose real-life counterpart was brunette, in the so-bad-it's-good Death Clique 2014 is good for a dark laugh. Lexi's character's parents were murdered while she was away making out with her boyfriend on an episode of Criminal Minds, and she was even threatened with violence by Courteney Cox on Cougartown. Put simply, Lexi knows crying like Bo knows football, with an ability not just to cry on cue, but to actually feel and transmit genuine terror, horror, hopelessness, and despondence, and to do so without chewing the scenery as would say a Pomeranian on caffeine.As Jessica Burns in A Girl Like Her, you don't have to ask the protagonist about the validity or extent of her suffering, because she literally wears it on her face, as it seeps through her every vocal intonation and movement, all accomplished so flawlessly that it is like watching Kevin Durant slam-dunk it for Lexi's hometown OKC Thunder. Casting Hunter King as the crumbling villain was also smart, since even mere mortal soapies can play in the emotional big leagues, though not at Lexi's level. Fortunately, she does not outstrip the writing as badly in this film as she has in her other vehicles, and the writers do an excellent job of balancing the story between bully and victim, a creative detour from how I would have steered such a film Lexi is like an NFL player who can run the 40 in 4.25 seconds without breaking a sweat. The formula for stardom is very simple: get a big budget, write a script with a relatable, sympathetic, yet still-hot female lead, tell a story so compelling the audience would cry even reading it, hand her the script, turn on the camera, and get out of her way. This seems to be what director Amy S. Weber did. Having been bullied, and studying the bully mindset for my entire life, I commend her for showing that in any bullying situation, there is a lot of pain to go around, and a lot of children who may be acting intentionally but who really don't understand the harm they are inflicting until it is too late. I learned much later in life over the internet that a grade-school quasi-tormentor of mine had lost his father prior to moving into my building, where my intact family could not have helped his state. ON the other hand, we might not have been friends anyway, and ran in different circles. My friendships-gone-wrong never soured to the depths in this film but some have, especially among girls.The one missing link in the script, however, is that it rushed Jessica from happy-go-lucky student into a nearly-successful suicide attempt, by reinforcing the idea that she was a pure doormat, when most who end their lives or contemplate doing so are not, and cry out rather loudly before actually making an attempt, at least to their inner circle. Despite this scripting limitation, Lexi's Jessica was not the "crybully" who weaponized her victimhood in a manner which makes Thirteen Reasons more akin to Scream, almost a parody of those very-special episodes and movies of the week. You can clearly see Jessica is on the way to attempting suicide, a process so self-absorbing that thoughts shift from revenge to simply ending one's pain.The film's conclusion was expected though still inspiring, in a way that almost had to be made.After seeing this film, and then watching 13 Reasons, I could not stand the self-aware, almost self-mocking latter. Lexi's day will come relatively soon. She is one tear-jerking script and a proper budget away from a major award.
lannafairy
I came across this film just by accident on Netflix and decided to watch it not really expecting or sure what it was about. However,I felt it was truly eye opening how bullying can affect young people today and how over looked it can be due to cliques and the norms in school. The different angles that it captured,not only Jessica but Avery too really showed the dark side and even though I can't say I feel sorry for Avery,I still understand her issues. The scenes at times got me choked up because you can only imagine what Jessica was going through that brought her to do such a sad thing. This needs to be shown and regonised more to show awareness of the affects and the aftermath of bullying. Must see!
raindrops62
This is the best bully drama I've seen. Instead of it being a generic bland story about unbelievable characters this film was beautifully directed and the actors truly make it a heart wrenching tale.Instead of focusing on the victim, is also dives further to discover the bullied and the bully, covering why bullies do what they do. Not since Breakfast Club has a film reminded its audience that there are often 2 victims in cases of bullying.But it also doesn't diminish the fear and horror of the effects of bullying, it truly makes your eyes tear each time you hear the doctor talk to the parents, each time her parents and Brian blame themselves, and remind victims of the consequences of suicide itself on their family and friends.
