Is You Get Me a good movie?

Where’s the middle? A good film has a beginning, middle, and an ending – so that us, as an audience, can feel we’ve achieved something through these characters and their lives we’re following for 90 minutes. You Get Me has a beginning. And it has an ending. The entire movie I’m left wanting more – more from the story, more from the characters (and more importantly, their lightly touched on backstories) just more in general. There’s no build to the story until the last five minutes and even that is poorly executed.

In the AM. This film is full of cheesy one liners and badly delivered ‘climactic’ moments. Sometimes the best ‘oh my god’ lines of a movie are ones that are delivered at an unexpected time with an ease of cool. This movie just tried too hard to wow their audience.

Shake It Up. The best performances would’ve had to come from Bella Thorne and Halston Sage – I love up and coming actors, but the performances from the people in this movie wasn’t great. It was pretty monotone throughout the entire movie and didn’t leave me wanting to watch more of their work. Not to entirely blame them – the script writing in this film was pretty mediocre as well, a good actor can work with any type of material, but I don’t think even De Niro could’ve saved this script.

Light(ing) bulb moment. I will give major props to the cinematographer of the film, Magdalena Gorka. The contrasting colors and beautiful shots of scenery were pretty much the only things that kept me watching until the end of this 89-minute film. The mix of blues, oranges and reddish pinks portrayed the emotions that were supposed to carry the scenes and heightened the film.

This cliché teenage ‘love story’ really left me asking ‘not another teen movie?’
Along with many other questions, the biggest one - why did I waste my time?  

You Get Me

0.5Overall Score

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2017Bella ThorneBen EpsteinBrent BonacorsoHalston SageMagdalena GórkaNetflix Original FilmTaylor John SmithYou Get Me (2017)

Cortnie Heaven

Contributing Writer

I'm an aspiring writer trying to make a difference in the world through the magic of cinema and the wonder of storytelling.

You Get Me is a 2017 American thriller film directed by Brent Bonacorso, written by Ben Epstein, and starring Bella Thorne, Halston Sage, Taylor John Smith, Anna Akana and Nash Grier. It was released on Netflix on June 23, 2017.

Tyler is a high school student in love with his girlfriend Alison ("Ali"). One night at a party, Tyler discovers that Ali used to be a heavy partier and would often drink and sleep around. Tyler gets angry and the couple break up. Outside the party, he meets the mysterious Holly. They end up partying and sleeping together. They spend the rest of the weekend bonding and making love in Holly's huge house, with Holly telling Tyler her father died and her stepmother travels a lot. Tyler says that the weekend was special before leaving, seemingly forgetting all about Ali.

Tyler gets back together with Ali the following day and, while at school, notices Holly. Holly reveals that she goes there now and wanted to surprise him. Tyler tries cutting ties with Holly multiple times but he fails each time. Holly starts hanging out with Ali, as well as Ali and Tyler's friends, Gil and Lydia. Lydia soon becomes suspicious of Holly when she discovers Holly's lack of any social media presence. Some time passes and Tyler begins to suspect that Holly is dangerous, especially when meeting her stepmother, Corinne, who reveals that Holly takes medication for a mental disorder. The next day, Holly intentionally causes Lydia to have an extreme allergic reaction after overhearing her telling Ali that she doesn't buy Holly's story and is going to find out what's going on.

Holly later shows up at Tyler's house, telling him that she wants the two of them to get back together. When Tyler rebukes her, Holly tells Ali that she and Tyler slept together. Tyler and Ali meet at the beach, where he confesses everything to her. Ali states that she never wants to talk to him again, before leaving. Holly then proceeds to get Tyler suspended, saying that he assaulted her. While on suspension, Tyler finds out that Holly's real first name is Elizabeth, and then looks her up online and discovers that she violently assaulted another female student over a boy and was committed to a mental institution for a while as a result. That night, Holly kidnaps Ali and then lures Tyler to her house by sending him a picture of an unconscious Ali. Meanwhile, Ali awakens to discover that she has been tied up and bound to a chair in Holly's house. Corinne comes home and finds Ali and attempts to rescue her. However, Holly sneaks up behind Corinne and suffocates her with a plastic bag, killing her.

When Tyler arrives at Holly's house, armed with a fire poker, he discovers Ali unconscious. Ali has been tied mid-air to the ceiling, with her forehead bleeding. Tyler manages to free Ali, and the two escape outside. Before they can get away, Holly stops them at gunpoint. Holly shoots Tyler in the shoulder, and Ali picks up the fire poker and stabs Holly. Later, Holly, still alive, is wheeled into the back of an ambulance and asks the paramedic to never leave her and makes him promise.

In the final scene, Tyler and Allison are at his younger sister, Tiffany's, birthday party. Tyler narrates and says he was looking for a fantasy about love. But he's learned his lesson, and now is focused on the love he has with Allison.

Production[edit]

Casting[edit]

Bella Thorne and Halston Sage were cast as female leads Holly and Ali, respectively in March 2016. Taylor John Smith was cast as male lead Tyler in April 2016. Added to the cast at the same time were Nash Grier, Anna Akana, Garcelle Beauvais and Kathryn Morris.

Filming[edit]

Filming on You Get Me began in Los Angeles in April 2016 and wrapped in May 2016. Filming also took place on the beach in Santa Monica.

Release[edit]

The film had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival June 14–22, 2017. It was originally scheduled to be released on Netflix on June 16, but it was released on June 23, 2017.

Reception[edit]

Brian Costello of Common Sense Media calls the film "a mess from beginning to end". Eddie Strait of The Daily Dot says "this film is no fun", and further criticizes the film not only for lacking in originality but also dullness. Felix Vasquez Jr. of Cinema Crazed describes it as "an abysmal entry in to this ridiculous sub-genre" and that although the film aspires to be Fatal Attraction, "it barely registers as a Swimfan clone".

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