I knew kids in junior high and high school who would say weird stuff just to get a rise out of me. They would talk dirty, and it wasn’t insulting to me personally, but they could sense I was naïve, and they enjoyed it. They were just as insecure, but they didn’t carry themselves that way. They were unnecessarily ruthless for the sake of being so.
That’s the problem for Terri (first time screen actor Jacob Wysocki). He’s a big kid for 15, large and fat beyond his age. Kids whisper stuff to him about vaginas and squeeze his man breasts. Is that particularly insulting? It’s certainly annoying. And it doesn’t help that he has to put up with this junk when he’s living alone with an uncle developing Alzheimer’s and walking to school everyday through the woods.
The title character in “Terri” is in a tailspin, developing as an adult and now conflicting with whether he’s weird or normal, smart or mentally challenged, and even good or bad. I liked getting to know Terri and observing how he grows in these few weeks of high school. I would’ve liked to know him as a kid before life seemed so confusing, but the film’s third act leaves its character wandering in uncertainty.
The bulk of the film follows Terri’s bond with Principal Fitzpatrick, played here wonderfully by John C. Reilly. Fitzpatrick sets aside time in his day to meet with and help the troubled kids in the school.
But Terri didn’t know he was a troubled kid. “I guess I just wish I didn’t need help,” he says flatly. Terri’s called out for wearing pajamas to school, but since when did doing so turn him into a monster?
This film by Azazel Jacobs is an interesting character study, but specifically in the way it challenges the teenage coming-of-age drama. Nothing about “Terri” feels commonplace or cliché. In fact it feels rightfully indie, never stepping beyond its means and reciting somewhat cryptic and quirky dialogue to a breezy score.
And Wysocki is a joy up against Reilly. Each actor seems to be testing their range, with Wysocki likely not as subdued and challenged as his character and Reilly asserting himself as a convincing authority figure.
But the movie takes a strange left turn. It builds up Terri’s relationship with the pretty Heather (Olivia Crocicchia), who was nearly suspended when she was caught unwillingly being sexually pleasured during class. The two have a cute chemistry, but they go through a rather disturbing drunken evening in which they question their sexuality and what is required of them.
I can see this as an uncertain grappling with adulthood, but it was an uncomfortably illogical series of decisions that never fit these characters.
“Terri” loses points for going too far in its formula bending, but it has a heart beneath some unnecessary cruelty.
3 stars