Monday, August 8, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 19 Edgy, honest story of teenage trials: 'TERRI' "What are you tookin' at, Homo sapien sapien?" Apes Rise film plateaus Prequel to 'Planet' series leaves us rooting for the apes By DAVID TAO Daily Film Editor We all know the story behind the "Planet of the Apes" franchise. Apes turn smart. Apes unite. Apes rise up. Apes kill all the humans and take over the world. The sur- The Rise of viving humans degenerate into the Planet mute, mentally Of te d disabled clowns ^F~ who fling their At Quality16 feces at pass- and Rave ing apes. Tra- 20th Century Fox ditionally, it's a tale of irony and self-destruction, with a lot of darkness and despair brewing beneath the surface. But in its latest attempt at a franchise reboot, Fox turns this premise on its head, releasing a heavy-hand- ed, 105-minute PETA commercial in which the schoolyard bully - humanity - gets what it deserves. Our hippy liberal tale of cli- ched revelry begins in the big wild jungle, where the evil humans from the faceless drug conglom- erate kidnap apes to do mean evil experiments on. Well, not all the humans are evil. Researcher Will Rodman (James Franco, "127 Hours") is actually a pretty cool guy, who just wants to find an Alzheimer's cure so his daddy doesn't start pushing up daisies. Less cool are Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo, TV's "MI-5"), the head of giant conglomerate, who (gasp!) wants his investment to turn a profit, and animal "trainer" Dodge Landon (Tom Felton, "Harry Pot- ter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2"), who (less sarcastic gasp!) tor- tures captive apes for his sadistic pleasure. From there, we get a fairly rote, predictable story in the same vein as the original all-the-humans- die premise, with a few preachy tropes in between about how some things aren't meant to be changed. Meanwhile, the entire cast does its best to deliberately shred audience sympathy. Felton is particularly hateable, giving the same, bratty, immature performance we've seen him give eight times as Draco Mal- foy. Franco, who is supposedly the human center of the film, gives a flat, indifferent performance, less Oscar-nominee and more stoned Oscar host. The apes are what save the movie, making up for the emo- tional dead weight of the human characters. Caesar, Rodman's pri- mary test subject, is a marvel of modern effects technology. He's played by motion-capture veteran Andy Serkis, who brought King Kong to life in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake and voiced Gollum in Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and for all intents and purposes, looks like a real captive ape. But he's also more than that. Despite his simian origins, he's the most humanized character in the entire cast. His struggle for freedom is a visceral tale, told effi- ciently through actions and with a minimum of cheesy talking-ani- mal dialogue. We bond with Cae- sar. We cringe as he's tortured in captivity, we smile as he develops a paternal relationship with Rod- man and we cheer when he inevi- tably succeeds. In his niche, Felton bullies apes now, not boy wizards. But therein also lies the film's greatest weakness. As the climax approaches and an assembled primate army faces off against heavily-armed SWAT teams, we realize that we've been cheering on the extinction of the human race, which the story treats as just vengeance for researchers who are callously trying to save lives. The best propaganda is restrained - we adapt the director's point of view without consciously real- izing it's the director's point of view. And as chimps scream and helicopters explode, it becomes obvious that the film is anything but subtle. By JULIA SMITH- EPPSTEINER ManagingArts Editor "TERRI" is a movie that grounds you within a world, which carries a simultaneously sad and beauti- ful reality all* wrapped into 105 minutes. In TERRI the caring arms of ATO Pic- At the tures, director Michigan Azazel Jacobs ATO ("Momma's Man") and the team behind "Blue Valentine" and "Half Nelson," the film, at times painfully awkward but reigning in deep hues of candor, triumphs in its composition and characters' execution. The sound of trickling water adapts into an image of an over- weight teenager submerged in a bathtub, face deadpan with apa- thy. We soon find out that this is title character, Terri Thompson (Jacob Wysocki, TV's "Huge"), who lives with and takes care of his mentally ill but sarcastic and insightful Uncle James (Creed Bratton, TV's "The Office"). As the film gently progresses from the opening scene to Terri arriving at high school home- room tardy, derogatorily whis- tled at by his classmates, classical soprano female vocals pervade our auditory senses setting an offbeat mood for "TERRI," a hit at this year's Sundance Film Fes- tival. Female intrigue sparks up the energy of the cinematic space when we see Terri peering through flour and baking soda in Home Economics, eyes unblink- ing as he watches Heather Miles (Olivia Crocicchia, TV's "Rescue Me") push her boyfriend's hands away from underneath the table. An instant dislike for the guy who has previously verbally harassed Terri, develops as he says, "It's the perfect moment." Heather says, "No." He whispers aggres- sively, "Yes." A lesson on sexual consent? Almost feels that way. Fifteen minutes in, the movie begins. John C. Reilly ("Magno- lia") enters the picture as Prin- cipal Fitzgerald, who calls Terri in to discuss the boy's worri- some "red flags": grade drops, no class participation and paja- mas as public attire. The film's base is established when "Fitzer" explains why he asked Terri to meet - "Every year there are two groups of kids that stand out here ... there's the good-hearted kids and there's the bad-hearted kids." The rest of the story is a sort of indirect response to Terri's response to his principle's state- ment, "And which one am I?" The audience undergoes a sym- pathetic experience as Terri sets mice traps, spells cheddar incor- rectly on the grocery list, shaves Uncle James' face and gets kicked out of gym because he wouldn't participate in high jump. Like 'Charlie Bartlett,' but with more pajamas.- The pace of the film picks up speed about halfway through when Terri sticks up for Heath- er as she becomes somewhat of a social outcast because of an embarrassing act. Not only dres he win Heather's friendship and admiration when he diverts negative attention from her in school by doing a comedic Joe Hollywood gimmick, but also befriends a perverted but lovable kid, Chad (newcomer Bridger Zadina), who also meets with Mr. Fitzgerald on a weekly basis. Heather invites herself over to Terri's to meet his uncle, and when Chad impels the trajec- tory of the evening, the plot hits a startling but sincere tone of edgi- ness. The movie ends on a pleas- ant note of Fitzgerald and Terri shooting hoops, eating cheese- burgers and talking about the intimate folds of life. Supported by eloquent filming, "TERRI" subtly succeeds as a unique portrayal of the ugly and the beautiful, of every human being wanting to fit in and feel wanted.