Perfect High (2015 TV Movie) User Reviews

**1/2

[edwagreen · 6/10 · 26 July 2015]

Run of the mill yarn with the typical theme of a girl getting injured and her use of pain killers leading to addiction from much more dangerous narcotics. Of course, the familiar theme of getting in with a bad crowd is also discussed.

The movie starts off as if it is going to be about the rebelliousness of her younger brother, with his outbursts and defiance to his parents.

Hard to fathom the naivete of the parents who never realize what their daughter has gotten herself into. No, they're not in denial either as they actually at one point think that she is starving herself when she showed a lack of appetite.

nothing new

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 28 July 2018]

At Lakewood High, lead dance troupe member Amanda (Bella Thorne) is part of the selfie obsessed generation. She dislocates her knee and is prescribed hydrocodone. Riley wants a friendly handout. She starts going out with Riley's brother Carson and soon she's pulled into Riley's drug world. She spirals out of control.

Bella Thorne works better as the mean girl. This is a scared-straight afterschool special movie of the week. It hits most of the standard drug tropes. Some are cheesier than others. It's not particularly good nor bad. I do appreciate the misdiagnosis by her mother as an eating disorder but by the end, she's a little slow. This is not breaking any new grounds. It travels very familiar roads.

Lifetime after School

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 30 June 2015]

Beautiful, mature-looking teenager Bella Thorne (as Amanda) suffers a knee injury in her high school dance group. She is put on pain medication. While recuperating, red-haired Ms. Thorne meets sexy brunette Daniela Bobadilla (as Riley) who prefers drugs to dance. The girls hit it off and go shopping. Thorne hopes she'll be noticed by wavy-haired Israel Broussard (as Carson Taft), who seems a little slow on the hook up. But he's promised to stick with another girlfriend through high school and college. We eventually have a pill-popping foursome, with Ms. Bobadilla's boyfriend Ross Butler (as Nate) rounding out the quartet. But, as all schoolchildren know, pain medication can lead to heroin addiction and death...

Even viewed as an update of the 1970s "After School Specials", "Perfect High" fails to convey realistic characters in realistic situations. It appears to be a warning and lesson for teenagers, about drugs. Despite receiving a "TV-14" rating, this TV Movie may be most appropriately viewed by that age or younger. They may find the main characters engaging. While attractive, they will likely bore most other viewers. There is one realistic character for writer Anne-Marie Hess, strangely. He is the younger brother Ryan Grantham (as Robbie), who seems like a typical high school teenager. He's so normal, it does make you wonder why everyone comes across as so stupid. But it's nice to stand out when you can.

**** Perfect High (2015-06-27) Vanessa Parise ~ Bella Thorne, Israel Broussard, Daniela Bobadilla, Ross Butler

Not "Perfect" nor "High" in any way.

[HaithamB · 2/10 · 29 June 2015]

Perfect High revolves around Amanda, played by Bella Thorne (the one impressive performance), a typical high-school dancer who engages herself with a group of people and soon becomes a drug addict. Life around her starts collapsing, but she cannot help it.

Firstly, the film revolves about a concept that has been overdone a million-times before, and it is no surprise this film is not getting the attention that it anticipates. Frankly enough, this film seems to be going nowhere with its premise, and indeed it doesn't; it is by the numbers teen melodrama that just seems to have an understatement about how social status affects a teen's life, and how everyone is pursuing fame and whatnot. However, I felt nauseated by the fact that the characters in this film are unlikable, except for Amanda (and not all the times). I like how Amanda kinda bonds with her younger brother, which is unique sort-say but still feels withdrawn and overdone before as this whole movie is.

I can't help it but see that this is a disappointing film, and it lived up to my low expectations weirdly enough; a movie should surpass or disappoint, but this movie was just what I expected it to be: which is a nothing movie, with empty gaps that might have been filled up with twisted ideas, yet the writers to the film decided to dedicate the it to its good cause, and when movies choose style over substance (or in this case, being a shameless Ad campaign to raise awareness), it should not have been a movie in the first place, a could see this as an impressive 2 - minutes feature to raise awareness. And that is it for this film, it is not "Perfect" nor "High".

Surprisingly Real

[lisaelyea-46485 · 9/10 · 20 April 2019]

I had this on in the background while going about my day, but something in the dialogue made me pay closer attention. This is NOT your everyday teen fluff piece. It's dark and gritty and real. It slowly builds the story of opiate addiction from innocently getting hooked on oxy's after a painful injury, to the partying that new addicts enjoy, to the resulting reality of getting really sick from withdrawal and the search for ever stronger drugs leading to heroin use and heroin addiction. I don't want to give away anything more but if you happen to see this in your tv listings, you should definitely watch it.

Unrealistic Garbage

[elly-62591 · 2/10 · 25 September 2017]

This movie is utterly ridiculous.

It fails on so many technical levels. Everything is shot in a flat, boring way. The structure is extremely shoddy. The characters are unrealistic, 2 dimensional and unbelievable. There is a romance between the main character (Amanda) and some other idiot who looks like a discount Harry Styles which comes out of nowhere, contributes nothing to the story, and is extremely insufferable. The acting is bad. But all of this would be excusable as long as the story was good. It's not. The absolute worst thing about this movie is the writing. At one point, one of the characters ODs on Heroin. Now, in theory, this would be an extremely emotional and tense scene. Unfortunately, because the scriptwriters had no idea what they were doing, the scene is laughable. Literally. I was watching this by myself, and I was sat there laughing like a lunatic.

Do not watch this unless you're drunk. Or high on heroin.

Fun movie that brings us through the process of serious addictions in a normal teenagers life

[ajholt-70574 · 10/10 · 28 June 2015]

This movie is an excellent depiction of how real addiction can become , even in the most normal teenagers life. Addiction affects millions of young adults every year and the archaic view of it being an illness brought upon by poor decisions is becoming outdated. The reality is even the most normal person can fall down the wrong path through their peers or just bad circumstances; such as injuries and hardships. As long as the problem is caught early enough, any person can be saved from this devastating path. This movie while fun and light at times, has an incredibly serious under tone that progressively picks up as the movie goes on. I'd recommend this movie to anyone, especially people that may have trouble understanding how fast addiction can corrupt even the most pure of souls.

Corny even for Lifetime

[rubydragonfly88 · 2/10 · 5 July 2015]

Depending on the subject matter, I like Lifetime movies, but this one was corny even for them. The underlying premise is somewhat believable, but overall the movie seems unrealistic. It has some dramatic scenes, but they're not handled well so it comes off as melodramatic and awkward. Lifetime has made movies of similar content that were much better quality. Also, I get that social media is a major part of a teenager's life, but you can't even read what they're texting/posting and it seems awkwardly done. I don't think drug addicts constantly post about their use on social media. They could've integrated it that much better

Hashtag # Teenage tripe regurgitated

[Ed-Shullivan · 3/10 · 18 September 2020]

A popular female high school teenager Amanda Walker (Bella Thorne) who thrives on posting her cheerleader dance moves on social media platforms dislocates her knee which leads her into a fast paced downward spiral of first taking pain medication, to hard drugs. As a teenager girls/boys all make a decision whether to become leaders or followers. In this case the once popular cheerleader Amanda becomes a follower to a more popular girl who leads her into sex, drugs and alcohol.

Of course her parents are oblivious to the warning signs that Amanda displays and they chalk her mood swings and periodic illnesses up to her cheerleading accident and a more recent eating disorder.

Further along going into a downward spiral Amanda befriends a few other drug abusers and she comes face to face with a life or death situation with her new found friend.

Of course this Lifetime movie is attempting to teach teenagers what can happen rather quickly if you get mixed up with the wrong crowd of friends, drink alcohol and take unknown drugs, but I thought they glorified the process as Amanda loses her virginity and enjoyed being high. In my humble view this Lifetime movie failed miserable and sent the reverse message that drugs and sex can be glamorous and there will always be someone there to save you before you go too far overboard with the drugs and/or alcohol. As for the sex? Lifetime seems to chalk that up to just being a normal teenager. Both sad and wrong again.

Too bad Lifetime missed the opportunity to take drug abuse, alcohol abuse and free sex more seriously then they did. Miss Thorne only helped glamorize these issues. There will certainly be no Emmy's for this tripe.

I give it a 3 out of 10 IMDB rating.

I like drug movies

[Nightmarelogic · 9/10 · 28 August 2017]

First off let me get this out of the way. Drug movies are one of my favorite genres. Lifetime movies aren't always the best but when they have good story lines, good actors, and good writing they can be a good time. This is the story a teenage girl who after getting injured spirals out of control first on Rx drugs and then heroin. I am not exactly in the age range so I don't recognize any of the main actors but they all played their parts well especially Bella Thorne who played the main character. This of course is a Lifetime drug movie so don't expect any award winning material but it is on the high (no pun) end of what the network puts out and it tells a good story of a group of friends spinning out of control. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good Lifetime movie or anyone who likes a good drug movie. This is both.

A Strong Message

[gab-67599 · 10/10 · 9 July 2021]

I love this movie because it has the balls to show the real side of addiction. I cried because the acting felt so real. Yes, MOST all LM are the same but few hit home like this one did. As a former addict to pain pills I wish someone would have sat me down and MADE me watch this movie. I think this would be good movie for teens asking about peer pressure and drugs.

The most realistic movie for teens out there

[leighrichey · 10/10 · 3 December 2022]

If I were in charge, it would be mandatory that every middle schooler would have to watch this. Bella Thorne actually gave the best performance of her career. It's so realistic & it makes you a little sick to your stomach. It should. People that wrote in with their reviews who say that it's melodramatic and it's been done before, they probably have never had any kind of crisis in their family. This movie nails it on the head. These four teenagers is ARE all good kids and they all experience it together, so nobody had any kind of reasoning. I encourage you to make your kids sit down and watch this, as uncomfortable as it may be.

Pure TV-movie fun

[10point · 8/10 · 31 December 2023]

This is not super deep or nuanced commentary on substance abuse--this is the classic "fall of the all-star athlete" with contemporary dress and social media in the background. It does highlight the situation of teen athletes getting on the painkillers after sports injuries, but this movie was clearly made for entertainment value and not to preach any message deeper than "careful with those Vicodin and never do heroin."

I see some reviewers seem to report strong emotional resonance from the movie.. I just didn't feel that, and it's not because I haven't lost any friends to drugs. The film's exploration of fake friends, teen partying, parents difficulty relating or understanding etc. Are all well executed, but again this is definitely a movie for TV fun--one that you can apparently construe some personal meaning from, too! I just liked it as a Lifetime movie.