According to Greta

• Hilary Duff delivers the most unexpected performance of her career as Greta, a rebellious 17 year old exiled for the summer to a sleepy Jersey shore community where she immediately informs her grandparents of her plans to kill herself by the time she turns 18. But before Greta can cross suicide off her to-do list, she ll begin a romance with a young cook from a troubled background, confront a trag

A new kid in town assembles a fledgling rock band -- together, they achieve their dreams and compete against the best in the biggest event of the year, a battle of the bands.Not just another by-the-numbers teen-angst movie, Bandslam is a joyful expression of pop exuberance, with an unexpectedly thrilling (and retro) soundtrack and numerous moments of visual excitement. Actor-turned-director Todd Graff brings stylish imagination and heart to this story of a much-taunted and beleaguered kid nam! ed Will (Gaelan Connell), whose miserable life at a Cincinnati high school comes to an end when he and his single mom (Lisa Kudrow) move to New Jersey. At his new school, Will befriends two very different girls: the laconic Sa5m (High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens; the "5" is silent), and the take-no-prisoners, former cheerleader Charlotte (Aly Michalka of the pop group Aly & AJ), who is trying to get her rock band off the ground. The latter sees in Will--a student of pop music history--a potential manager who can help her group take top prize at an inter-school competition called Bandslam.

Graff treats Bandslam's story like a disposable toy, an excuse to squeeze every ounce of pure ecstasy from such ordinary events as first kisses or bursts of artistic inspiration. Around every corner in this movie comes a surprising and stirring moment: when Will and Sa5m break into the padlocked, no-longer-in-business music club CBGB in New York--a shrine of punk rock! --the vignette is reverential, actually moving. As a rare spec! imen of cinematic joy for its own sake, Bandslam is well worth seeing. --Tom KeoghAly Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens join Gaelan Connell, Scott Porter, and Lisa Kudrow in the music-driven comedy BANDSLAM. When gifted singer-songwriter Charlotte Barnes (Michalka) asks new kid in town Will Burton (Connell) to manage her fledgling rock band, she appears to have just one goal in mind: go head-to-head against her egotistical musician ex-boyfriend, Ben (Porter), at the biggest event of the year, a battle of the bands.

Against all odds, their band develops a sound all its own with a real shot at success in the contest. Meanwhile, romance brews between Will and Sa5m (Hudgens), who plays a mean guitar and has a voice to die for. When disaster strikes, it's time for the band to make a choice: Do they admit defeat, or face the music and stand up for what they believe in?

U.S. Release via Summit Entertainment, August 14, 2009.will burton e' un giovane introverso e sognatore ! con la testa piena di musica. quando sua madre karen ottiene un nuovo lavoro nel new jersey, will e' costretto a cambiare citta' e scuola. nel nuovo liceo tutto sembra uguale tranne il fatto che il rock'n roll domina. will finisce per fare amicizia con sam, una outsider come lui. con loro grande sorpresa, un giorno la ragazza piu' popolare della scuola, charlotte recluta entrambi per formare una band e partecipare al "bandslam", una ambita competizione musicale di band.Not just another by-the-numbers teen-angst movie, Bandslam is a joyful expression of pop exuberance, with an unexpectedly thrilling (and retro) soundtrack and numerous moments of visual excitement. Actor-turned-director Todd Graff brings stylish imagination and heart to this story of a much-taunted and beleaguered kid named Will (Gaelan Connell), whose miserable life at a Cincinnati high school comes to an end when he and his single mom (Lisa Kudrow) move to New Jersey. At his new school, Will befriend! s two very different girls: the laconic Sa5m (High School M! usical's Vanessa Hudgens; the "5" is silent), and the take-no-prisoners, former cheerleader Charlotte (Aly Michalka of the pop group Aly & AJ), who is trying to get her rock band off the ground. The latter sees in Will--a student of pop music history--a potential manager who can help her group take top prize at an inter-school competition called Bandslam.

Graff treats Bandslam's story like a disposable toy, an excuse to squeeze every ounce of pure ecstasy from such ordinary events as first kisses or bursts of artistic inspiration. Around every corner in this movie comes a surprising and stirring moment: when Will and Sa5m break into the padlocked, no-longer-in-business music club CBGB in New York--a shrine of punk rock--the vignette is reverential, actually moving. As a rare specimen of cinematic joy for its own sake, Bandslam is well worth seeing. --Tom KeoghSeventeen-year-old Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is the spoiled, shallow and incredibly popular prince of ! his high school kingdom. Kyle foolishly chooses Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), a witch masquerading as a high school student, as his latest target for humiliation. In order to teach Kyle a lesson, Kendra transforms him into someone as unattractive on the outside as he is on the inside. Now he has one year to find someone to love him, or he will remain Beastly forever. A quiet classmate he never noticed named Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) may be his best chance to prove that love is never ugly. Beastly definitely lives up to its name--it's an absolutely beastly film--and not in a good way. It's a modern-day retelling of Beauty and the Beast based on Alex Flinn's novel Beastly, and one expects some pretty extreme characters, but in this movie, the characters are shallow and one-dimensional to the extreme, and their supposed personal and emotional growth is totally unbelievable. As for the plot--self-absorbed pretty-boy gets cursed, nice girl gets imprisoned with no! w-ugly boy, boy changes, and the two fall in love--it just nev! er feels real or believable in this film. With a cast that includes Vanessa Hudgens and Neil Patrick Harris, one expects a halfway decent movie, but no amount of talent can overcome bad writing. In fact, one has to question whether Hudgens and Harris even tried, as their performances just aren't that good. The performances of Alex Pettyfer and Peter Krause are even worse, and Lisa Gay Hamilton only saves herself by her comic delivery of lines that primarily consist of two to three heavily accented monosyllables strung together at a time. The audience at our screening squirmed, laughed in inappropriate places, and even groaned out loud as the actors casually tossed off nuggets of wisdom in proper language that seemed totally out of place with the rest of the slang-riddled dialogue. Perhaps truisms like "Be the man I know you to be," lines quoted from Frank O'Hara's poem "Having a Coke," and statements like "Best embrace the suck" are supposed to come off as funny contrasts, but inste! ad it all just seems hopelessly incongruous and falls horribly flat. The one good thing in this movie is the special-effects makeup, though Kyle's face probably looks nothing like the face that most people picture when they read Flinn's book. Don't bother seeing Beastly unless you enjoy sneering at bad, shallow movies. (Ages 13 and older) --Tami HoriuchiHilary Duff delivers the most unexpected performance of her career as Greta, a rebellious 17 year old ‘exiled’ for the summer to a sleepy Jersey shore community where she immediately informs her grandparents of her plans to kill herself by the time she turns 18. But before Greta can cross suicide off her ‘to-do’ list, she’ll begin an interracial romance with a young cook from a troubled background confront a tragic family secret and maybe even discover the promising young woman beneath her sarcastic shell. Just when Greta’s looking for a way out, will life find a way back in?Many movies explore the ! difficulties of growing up, but few are as powerful and as mov! ing as < em>According to Greta. Hilary Duff is impressively strong as the title character, a 17-year-old who's trying to figure out who she wants to be, or if she wants to be, while grappling with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy and a rocky family life. Her mother (Melissa Leo) has had multiple husbands, and her father, whom she doesn't remember, committed suicide when she was very young. Greta's mother doesn't know what to do with her and wants to work on saving her third marriage, so she ships Greta off to stay with her Gram (Ellen Burstyn) and Gramps (Michael Murphy) in the sleepy retirement town of Ocean Grove, New Jersey, for the summer. Greta is angry, resentful, and spiteful, and she makes no secret of exactly how she's feeling. She views her imprisonment in the town as a death sentence, and it may literally be. In her journal, Greta keeps two lists: one of things she wants to do before she dies and one of suicide methods. Greta's grandparents both try, in their own w! ays, to get through to their granddaughter, but she is depressed, determined to push others away, and obstinately obnoxious. Greta meets Julie (Evan Ross), an African-American teenager who was once in juvenile detention is now a line cook with dreams of becoming a chef, and the two are extremely attracted to one another. Julie is wise beyond his years, having learned not only to accept responsibility for his own actions, but to act in a manner that will consistently further his ambitions. Just when it appears that Greta's relationship with Julie may inspire some maturation on her part, Greta does something that will heavily impact the lives of everyone close to her. Will she get a chance to realize that her actions dramatically affect the people around her and that age and experience bring valuable perspective? Few movies have the guts and insight to tackle teen suicide in a way that so realistically captures the intense emotional struggle involved in growing up and learnin! g to respect and love oneself. Both teens and adults should ma! ke a poi nt of seeing According to Greta. --Tami Horiuchi

Stills from According to Greta (Click for larger image)