Before I Fall Review

PG13: Mature Thematic Content Involving Drinking, Sexuality, Bullying, Some Violent Images, and Language-All Involving Teens

Open Road Films, Awesomeness Films

1 Hr and 39 Minutes

Cast: Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, Logan Miller, Kian Lawley, Jennifer Beals, Cynthy Wu, Elena Kampouris    

REVIEW: When you think of movie premises where a character has to relive the same day over and over again in a time loop, what is the first film you think of? You would either think of the 1983 comedy Groundhog’s Day or the 2014 sci-fi action flick Edge of Tomorrow or sometimes for me the 2011 thriller Source Code. You have your time loop movie for every genre. Sci-fi, comedy, action, but what if you had it for teens. Granted these films are all rated PG13, but what if they were for the thirteen year old female demographic. Guys have Edge of Tomorrow, and now girls have Before I Fall, a film from AwesomnessTV that is rather good??

What if you had only one day to change absolutely everything? Samantha Kingston has it all: the perfect friends, the perfect guy, and a seemingly perfect future. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, Sam wakes up with no future at all. Trapped reliving the same day over and over she begins to question just how perfect her life really was. And as she begins to untangle the mystery of a life suddenly derailed, she must also unwind the secrets of the people closest to her, and discover the power of a single day to make a difference, not just in her own life, but in the lives of those around her - before she runs out of time for good.

THE GOOD:In 2016, Zoey Deutch starred in several theatrical releases that were good (Everybody Wants Some) and not good at all (Dirty Grandpa, Why Him?). Granted her performance was the best thing in some of those bad films, they were both so unbearably terrible they both made my Worst of 2016. It was as heartbreaking to see her in those films as much as it was heartbreaking to see Toby Kebbell star in Ben-Hur and Warcraft when you know they can at least be in a GOOD movie. She has proven to be a very talented actress. She had a scene in the Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some (which was in my Best Of) that proved she has all the charm to star in the lead of a feature film (THAT IS NOT VAMPIRE ACADEMY), and this is the perfect movie for her. Before I Fall is Zoey Deutch proving that she is not only a talented actress but can carry a film on her own given the right material. This film right here is the Groundhog Day of the Deutch. It’s not only her performance that carries the film with the delivery with her dialogue but her expressions as well. When her character Sam begins to relive the same day over again for the first time, she doesn’t say “WTF is going on?” for her facial reactions says it all. You see her go through various emotions with each day she relives, and she can quickly change her attitude. She can range from mean to bratty to down to earth and genuinely sweet. 

The film establishes Sam and all of her friends as the definition of Mean Girls. They are such mean girls that even the mean girls in Mean Girls would go, "Damn you are some mean girls." You don’t like any of these characters including Sam as they treat everyone around them like total garbage. You feel sorry for anyone these girls interact with opposed to feeling sorry for these girls themselves. By the time they harshly bully the weird girl you truly want them to die. When they do die before Sam wakes up, it’s worth the price of admission. You don’t see them die in the car crash, but it’s heavily implied. 

As it goes on, you don’t like them per se, but the film attempts to add dimension in these characters. None of these relieved days feel repetitious for they have new outcomes that reveal backstory to these characters and some of it is surprising. As the film progresses, it is revealed the connections Sam and her friends had with different people they interact with throughout the film. You get to find out their relationships they had with various people and their past together before high school.

The beauty of this film is Sam not only reliving the same day over and over but spending it with different people. The film is structured very well as it plays like a teenage-oriented Edge of Tomorrow where it takes a known formula and adds something new to it. It doesn’t play for comedic effect but goes for dramatic instead. It works by giving some of the characters depth mainly with Sam and using the drama to its advantage. By the film reaches its conclusion, it gives a powerful and unexpected message. It has an ending that gives you chills but surprisingly works. It works as much the lesson in Nerve worked (which I think is an underrated movie).

THE BAD: Just like every film that is based on a YA novel, this film can’t go two scenes without playing a song. Since this film is oriented towards teenage girls and is based on a YA novel, it has an obligated contact to promote its soundtrack. Since this film is set in a time loop, some of the songs are heard again and again which is clever but regardless still pretty trite. There’s no other way to put it other than annoying and obnoxious. It’s not even just this movie; it’s a lot of films based on every YA novel aimed towards girls. Twilight, Divergent, If I Stay the list goes on. Can there be just a film based on a YA novel that doesn’t have to promote to a cheesy song or soundtrack? Maze Runner didn’t promote a soundtrack, be like them.

The film takes it cheesy shortcuts where we learn about characters by telling than showing. Scenes of reveal and exposition just go with a character going, “Hey remember in third grade when you did so and so for me?” and Sam responding, “Oh yes, I remember that.” It doesn’t visually explain it, but just verbally says it. Though it unexpectedly reveals some details, it'd be good if the film showed these memories played out as characters are explaining that particular memory. But hey, this is a small budget movie from Awesomeness Films. You can’t have everything. It sometimes succumbs to unintentionally funny dialogue that is cheesy (which the majority comes from Logan Miller trying to get with Sam through the entire film). Every time it has ounces of transcending storytelling, it goes back to HEY WE’RE AWESOMENESS TV! LET’S PLAY THIS SONG YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BUY! 

There is one huge continuity error in the film where girls are to deliver roses in Sam’s classroom in a later scene. This scene happens again as we see her relive this day, but the last time it happens you see the roses already on Sam’s desk before the rose delivery girls come in. It's an editing continuity error that doesn’t stand out, but yet at the same time, it does.

LAST STATEMENT: With a strong lead performance from Zoey Deutch, Before I Fall is a well adapted YA novel that works in a good message of treating everyone with kindness and respect for nobody knows how long life will last.

Rating: 3.5/5 |78%

Super Scene: Sam goes off on Lindsey