“Human dignity + compassion = peace.”
Every once in a while I stumble upon a Coming-of-Age film that truly deserves a standing ovation from start to finish. That’s What I Am is one of them. The film is a real marvel featuring a meaningful and well told story, first class acting and directing and significant Coming-of-Age value.
The story is told in the first person through the eyes of 12-year-old Andy Nichol (Chase Ellison), a middle school student in the late 1960’s (intriguingly, many of the best American Coming-of-Age movies are also set in that era). When Mr. Simon (Ed Harris), his teacher, hands out the final class projects he pairs each of his pupils with a fellow classmate. Andy is not too happy with the teacher’s choice for him, as he gets partnered up with no other than the class outsider, Big G (Alexander Walters), an intelligent boy (or a nerd/geek as the kids call such boys). Big G is constantly teased about the size of his ears and his red hair. Big G is obviously not the real name of the boy – his name is Stanley. But as kids will, they have made up the nickname for him – G stands for ginger – a derogatory term for red heads. As if Andy doesn’t have enough problems of is own!
He’s fallen in love with the most popular girl in school, who has a reputation of being a great kisser and heart-breaker, and he has to constantly avoid the bullies in the school, the biggest of whom still hasn’t gotten over being dumped by the same girl Andy has fallen in love with.
As the story unfolds, Andy’s teacher becomes a victim of a malicious rumor about his sexuality spread as an act of revenge after he takes a stand against a school bully who beats up a girl in the schoolyard.
That’s What I Am is a film filled with rite of passage moments: first love worries, peer pressure, growing up and accepting people for who they really are. The film has a sense of sweet nostalgia (even for people whose middle school experience occurred much more recently than the times in which the film’s story takes place). The clever usage of voice-over narration by the now grown up character is a method which enhances the storytelling, a device that is well-suited for Coming-of-Age narratives and it did not fail the film’s director Michael Pavone.
I don’t want to fail to mention the brilliant acting performance by the young Chase Ellison in the film’s lead role. He is an actor I have been following ever since I first saw him in the controversial Mysterious Skin, back in 2004. He has never failed to live up to my expectations (despite the fact that the 2010 TV movie The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, in which he also had a lead role, lacked any real production value). The other star of the film is Ed Harris, who delivers a powerful and understated performance as a beloved and inspirational English teacher – a real role model for his pupils.
If you are looking for a bittersweet nostalgic story about growing up and making sense of the world and people around you, That’s What I Am will be a perfect choice. The film can be equally enjoyed by adults and younger people and, if it were up to me, I would have suggested that it be shown in classrooms – not only because of its inspirational value, but because of the important subjects it touches on: prejudice, tolerance and bullying. I really enjoyed the film and have no hesitation in highly recommending it to the readers of theskykid.com.
Film title: That’s What I Am
Release year: 2011, World Wrestling Entertainment
Director: Michael Pavone
Cast: Chase Ellison, Ed Harris, Molly Parker, Daniel Roebuck, Daniel Yelsky, Alexander Walters and others
I totally agree with your review and have also read many reviews about this little known gem. I think some people focus on the wrong part of the story and/or perhaps take it out of context – but I loved it the first time I stumbled upon it and every time since.
As a teacher, I have shown it to five classes of middle school students ( 14 – 16 yo), from a tough school. Majority enjoyed the movie and great discussion ensued. I highly recommend for use in the classroom…. just make sure you know the content and can facilitate good learning!!
♡
ANY film no matter how bad with Chase Ellison is worth watching. lam
The Year of Getting to Know Us lame film, but Chase never looked better.
I didn’t think this film was that good to be honest. I found it quite fake at times, and almost condescending. The development of the story through the acts was quite minial as well, and I felt that it didn’t really excel in moving the story forward. It felt we were in the same place and situation for majority of the film, and the pay-off and conclusion of the film was handled very poorly.
I thought the acting was quite good though. Chase Ellison was good in the main role, and Alexander Walters was quite good, although I found him annoying in a few scenes, which is not really what you want to be feeling when his character is meant to be one that you sympathise with.
Anywho, not a film that I was impressed with, but had some nice moments.
As each review reflects personal opinion based on one`s experiences..etc it was interesting to me to read your take on this film ( That`s what the comments are for ). I did associate with Chase character quite a lot and when it comes to the teacher character his whole appearance reminded me much of my Latin and English teacher when I was a student in the USA on my own. I did read many other reviews of the film ( at least the ones linked trough its IMDB page ) and it seems that some of their authors have a take similar to yours…so yea its a matter of seeing it and reflecting on it.
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