Full of It DVD Review

Full of It
Review By: Kelsey Zukowski
Starring: Ryan Pinkston, Kate Mara, Teri Polo, John Carroll Lynch, Cynthia Stevenson, Amanda Walsh
Directed By: Christian Charles
Written By: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Released: 2007
Grade: B-

Ryan Pinkston, the lead in this film, is the main reason why I decided to check it out. Ever since he played the somewhat inappropriate kid in the first season of Punk’d, I have been a fan of him. He was absolutely hilarious on the short lived sitcom, Quintuplets. His character in Full of it, is short and perceived as somewhat of a nerdy outcast. Playing someone almost half his age in Punk’d and the “runt” of the family in Quintuplets he has experience with this character that doesn’t quite fit in. The difference is this time he has more of a level of vulnerability and is just facing the judgments that all humans but particularly teenagers face everyday.

Sam Leonard (Pinkston) who is just switching schools upon his senior year. He is up for a math scholarship to college, but Sam is really trying to get away from the persona of the smart guy. He doesn’t want to just survive high school anymore, he wants to reign supreme. Sam tries to be himself but just about everyone immediately gives him a hard time aside from Annie (Mara), one of Sam’s classmates. He is beat up by the jocks and rejected by the popular girls. So Sam figures that he has to lie his way through school in order to try to influence people’s friendships.

Soon though, all of his lies begin to come true. He is living in an alternate reality. His dad is now trying to make a comeback from his days in the band, Poison. His mom is an Avante Garde artist who paints explicitly sexual material. Sam owns a nice car rather than the bicycle he is used to riding. The most popular girl in school, Vicki (Walsh), is crazy about him along with just about every other girl including his married teacher, Mrs. Moran (Polo). He is even magically the new star of the basketball team while he no longer has any mathematical abilities. At first Sam is really liking some of these changes, but some of them are a bit too much for him to take.

Ryan Pinkston does well as Sam, someone who can be superficial but is really just an average kid trying to be more. Kate Mara was charming as Annie, the one student shown in the school who seems genuine and doesn’t let other people do her thinking for her. She has a strong presence is actually much prettier than the supposed ‘hottest girl in school’, Vicki. John Carroll Lynch and Cynthia Stephenson were both hilarious as Sam’s parents even before the lies start taking over. They are very overprotective of Sam. They treat him like a child which proves to be very frustrating to him. Their language seems very goofy, the only thing is that they are being completely serious.

The soundtrack for the film is very fitting. There is a motif with the Beach Boys and specifically the song, “I Want to Go Home”. Sam wants to find a place that really feels like home, where he can be happy. The popular kids seem happy, so he thinks the key to having this lies in them. He comes to the realization that home wasn’t so far away from where he was in the beginning. There are also a few pop-punk numbers. Normally I am not the biggest fan of most music from the genre, but they seem to show the kind of spirit that Sam has. Also, the song “Liar” is pretty much perfect in his case.

Now it is important to remember that this is a teen comedy and no revolutions are made here. Most of the film is fairly predictalbe. There is a definite level of cheesiness but it is justified. Most of the film is taking place in an alternate world basically. All of the circumstances, people, and their actions are meant to be very out of the ordinary. So all of the craziness no matter how out of the place or random it may seem is that way to prove a point; this is not a natural reality. Although the plot in general doesn’t produce anything very shocking there are some specific surprising moments. One in particular is how open Mrs. Moran is with her overwhelming sexual attraction and possessiveness towards Sam. Another instance of this is when revenge is taken against him. It was really only one step away from ending like a violent and brutal horror film. I don’t mean to confuse anyone by that though, as this is a very funny pure comedy that shows how fake an environment we would have if lies created a fictional truth.