"Tanner Hall" is basically "Wild Child" meets "Girl Interrupted", if you enjoyed "Cracks" you should seek out this film. It is an extremely modest production but the entire budget makes it onto the screen, the four main characters were realistically developed, and the four actresses playing them were well directed. Amy Sedaris plays a secondary character who effectively provides a necessary comic relief, thereby leaving the four main characters free of something that could have tainted their connections to the viewer.
Fernanda (Rooney Mara) has the standard Winona Ryder part and the storytelling is essentially from her character's point of view, with the same voice-over narration of Ryder's character in "Girl, Interrupted". Rooney's acting has an ephemeral quality that transforms ordinary scenes into something special, perhaps best illustrated by her nonverbal reaction to discovering Victoria alone and crying in the rest room. The editor explains this through Fernanda's voice-over, but the scene has already communicated Fern's shifting attitude as she processes her unexpected connection with Victoria's vulnerability.
The climatic scene in which Fernanda becomes protective of the bullying Victoria (Georgia King) did not entirely ring true - it was perhaps too extreme - Victoria's mother needed a better build-up. But I find scenes where a seemingly weaker girl becomes protective of a stronger one to be irresistible, probably become they challenge a viewer's preconceptions.
And challenging viewer preconceptions is what "Tanner Hall" is all about. Like "Welcome to the Dollhouse", this is a film more about what is happening inside each viewer as they watch the film than about what is actually happening on the screen. Your reaction and the film's entertainment value will have a lot to do with your own experiences at that age or at least your sympathetic awareness of the difficulties that some of your classmates were experiencing. Meaning that if you don't connect and are not mildly blown away by the understated realism, then you and your friends simply weren't dysfunctional enough.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Fernanda (Rooney Mara) has the standard Winona Ryder part and the storytelling is essentially from her character's point of view, with the same voice-over narration of Ryder's character in "Girl, Interrupted". Rooney's acting has an ephemeral quality that transforms ordinary scenes into something special, perhaps best illustrated by her nonverbal reaction to discovering Victoria alone and crying in the rest room. The editor explains this through Fernanda's voice-over, but the scene has already communicated Fern's shifting attitude as she processes her unexpected connection with Victoria's vulnerability.
The climatic scene in which Fernanda becomes protective of the bullying Victoria (Georgia King) did not entirely ring true - it was perhaps too extreme - Victoria's mother needed a better build-up. But I find scenes where a seemingly weaker girl becomes protective of a stronger one to be irresistible, probably become they challenge a viewer's preconceptions.
And challenging viewer preconceptions is what "Tanner Hall" is all about. Like "Welcome to the Dollhouse", this is a film more about what is happening inside each viewer as they watch the film than about what is actually happening on the screen. Your reaction and the film's entertainment value will have a lot to do with your own experiences at that age or at least your sympathetic awareness of the difficulties that some of your classmates were experiencing. Meaning that if you don't connect and are not mildly blown away by the understated realism, then you and your friends simply weren't dysfunctional enough.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.