Before I Fall

This review may contain spoilers!

It's a movie about anti-bullying in high school with a plot twist that is as old as the hills. I would give Before I Fall a 4.5/10.

Probably the most interesting aspect of this film was how well crafted the characters were, the main four girls felt like exceptionally real people and their blindness to their own bullying was a huge quality of the film. I also really liked how simply the implementation of Samantha having to relive her day of death was, it was a very smooth transition from a sudden scary scene to quite a poignant and eerie revelation. The cinematography for this film was great, the shades of black and white used throughout were made all the more richer by the deep blues and reds that seemed to be present in almost every shot. The score for the film was very melancholy but had quite a unique electronic vibe to it; the soundtrack was also quite the triumph with special mention to Grimes' work for capturing the tone perfectly.

Zoey Deutch, who played Samantha Kingston, made for a really good protagonist despite some rather corny lines; Deutch brings forth a compassionate character who really evolves quite a bit over the course of the narrative. Halston Sage, who played Lindsay Edgecomb, really fit the popular girl persona well; her harsh and superior demeanour hid quite a carefully concealed vulnerable side. Cynthy Wu and Medalion Rahimi, who played Ally Harris and Elody respectively, really brought a lot of chemistry to the main cast; these two had such energy and real genuine emotion when they were onscreen.

However the best performance came from Erica Tremblay, who played Izzy Kingston. Tremblay is a really sweet child actor who makes quite the mark on this film. She's quite funny and hits each scene she's in with a ton of energy. Tremblay has quite an uneasy relationship with Deutch when first we see her but it really grows to be quite a strong one as the film progresses. The scene where Tremblay and Deutch spend an entire day together is probably one of the most genuine scenes of the entire film. Some might question why I'd pick Tremblay for best performer as her role certainly didn't get the screen time that some of the cast did; I would say Tremblay earns this because she crafts a role who never feels fake while most of the other characters in the film feel as if they're pushing the theme a little too hard at least once.

This is a film that really wants to showcase the effects and different perspectives of high school bullying but the problem is that it doesn't really know how to do this in a subtle way. Quite often when the theme of the film is presented in a given scene the dialogue becomes very cheesy and transparent; there's no room for you or even the characters to draw their own conclusions about what is going on. Throughout the feature there is a romantic subplot occurring between Samantha and Kent that feels really forced, these are characters the movie really pushes together and who you don't really feel convinced should be together. The ending of the film is a particular nightmare in which the main protagonist must lose her life and save the person she had been bullying in order to achieve redemption. Yet the issue with this is that Samantha had never really been aware of the reasons behind why she'd bullied Juliet, she was someone who followed the lead of others. Over the course of the movie she matured a lot, faced her own failings as a person and even learnt about why Juliet was mistreated by everyone else so for her to then have to lose her own life after all that made little sense and even seemed like a cruel twist to illicit a cheap emotional response from the audience. The editing of the film came quite slow as well, often scenes felt dragged out and didn't move at a very fast pace.

Logan Miller, who played Kent McFuller, was quite a disappointing love interest for Deutch; Miller really came across as a forceful and creepy stalker rather than the sweet childhood friend he was supposedly playing. Kian Lawley, who played Rob Cokran, was nothing but a stereotypical beefcake; Cokran really had nothing to give this film other than a caricature of a jock and some of the worst line delivery I've heard all year. Elena Kampouris, who played Juliet Sykes, probably played the weird factor of her character up a bit much; Kampouris is a flurry of emotions that don't necessarily make you empathise with her as a character. Liv Hewson, who played Anna Cartulo, is one of the most redundant characters in the film; Cartulo plays a lesbian to highlight people being bullied for their sexuality but is only given two or three real scenes to work with which is frankly nowhere near enough. Nicholas Lea and Jennifer Beals, who played Dan Kingston and Mrs Kingston respectively, really didn't connect with Deutch nor did they feel very committed to this film; in particular Beals' character seemed to have been a lot more lacking in this feature than she was intended to be. Diego Boneta, who played Samantha's Teacher, was quite a repetitive stiff performance; the scene where Deutch flirts with Boneta is cringeworthy and awkward.