Title: Almost Friends
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Director: Jake Goldberger
Starring: Freddie Highmore, Odeya Rush, Christopher Meloni
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins

What It Is: Charlie (Highmore) is the assistant manager of a theater, but he wants to be so much more. You see he is a talented chef who following a tragedy just cannot see himself moving forward with his life. When he finally goes and speaks to a girl he’s interested in named Amber (Rush) he starts to notice changes in himself. With his estranged father returning might put a wrench in those plans. He’ll have to move past his past as well as his present in order to secure a future.

What We Think: Cliche on top of cliche on top of bad writing is what this is. Take any indie flick about a disenfranchised young man not living up to his potential. Something like say the brilliant Garden State. That’s pretty much this movie. Just not as smartly written or directed. Highmore is a damned cyborg the whole time and Rush takes her exact same character from The Bachelors and moves it into here. She’s also quite similar in Lady Bird but nonetheless, she’s a true sight.

Our Grade: D+, I cannot recommend this one. Not for a moment. From the flat and uninspired performances to the stale writing, this is a bad film. Haley Joel Osment is in this film. He once said he saw dead people. He was probably talking about Freddie Highmore’s character in this film. Dude was straight dead face the whole way through. Really there’s no reason the see this stick to my above-mentioned films instead as they are good and feature really unique spins on the stories they’re telling. Odeya Rush needs to continue her path. She looks similar to Mila Kunis, and might even be more talented when it’s all said and done.