#REALITYHIGH (2017)

Movie Name/Year: #REALITYHIGH (2017)

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Length: 99 minutes

Rating: TV-14

Production/Distribution: Court of Five, Netflix, Reality High Productions

Director: Fernando Lebrija

Writer: Brandon Broussard, Hudson Obayuwana, Jana Savage

Actors: Nesta Cooper, Keith Powers, Alicia Sanz, Jake Borelli, Anne Winters, Patrick Davis, Michael Provost, Ryan Malaty, Kate Walsh, John Michael Higgins, Valarie Rae Miller, Jeffrey D. Sams, Leah Rose Randall, Marissa Cuevas, Peter Gilroy, Rebekah Graf, Thomas Anthony Jones, Suzanne Altfeld, Jana Savage, Kid Ink, Yousef Erakat, Chris Broussard, Tatiana Lett, Olivia Trujillo

Blurb from IMDb: High-achieving high-school senior Dani Barnes dreams of getting into UC Davis, the world's top veterinary school. Then a glamorous new friend draws her into a Southern California scene that threatens everything she's worked for.

Selina’s Point of View:

I’ve seen this movie about ten thousand times. Not this specific movie, but the plot of it.

You see hints of it in classics like Sixteen Candles (1984) and Pretty in Pink (1986). You also see bits of it in iconic films like Mean Girls (2004). If a movie is going to utilize this kind of plot, the creators need to understand that they are up against some serious hard-hitters. If #REALITYHIGH wanted to succeed, it needed to step up.

It didn’t.

There were a couple of parts that really hit home and the rest of it was incredibly basic.

The characters weren’t nearly as developed as they could have been, and the script left a lot to be desired. Acting wasn’t the problem. If you took the same exact actors and just transplanted them into another film with a better script – they would have been fine.

Little Leah Rose Randall (Graveyard Spiral, All About the Washingtons, Celebrity Page) has got a great career ahead of her, I recommend keeping an eye on her. She was super natural in her part, and if she can do that at her age, I can only assume she’ll be a regular at award shows when she’s older.

In the end, teenagers might find #REALITYHIGH watchable, but most adults are just going to roll their eyes through it.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 40%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 52%

Metascore – 38/100

Metacritic User Score – 3.0/10

IMDB Score – 5.2/10

CinemaScore – None

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2.5/5

Movie Trailer: