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Showing posts from August, 2011

Terri

Roaming the arid hills somewhere around Los Angeles, about a million miles from the stylized emotional teenage landscapes of John Hughes and those of his 21st-century descendants, we find the unlikely figure of Terri (Jacob Wysocki).  Whether loping about, sitting reluctantly in class, or attending to his uncle James, who seems to be in the early, unpredictable stages of Alzheimer's, Terri goes stolidly about his routine bedecked in one pair of pajamas or another.  "They're just comfortable on me," he explains to Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly), his high school principal.  That statement, in spirit as much as specifics, encapsulates Terri's attitude to an unpleasant fate:  it's not rebellion so much as acceptance.      Unfortunately, Terri's unique fashion sense and record of tardiness and absence do not find acceptance with Mr. Fitzgerald.  Terri is summoned to the office and takes his place among the high school misfits, all regarded with sardo