THE BIJOU @ REVIEW: "The Art Of Getting By"

THE ART OF GETTING BY (then called "Homework") stood out at Sundance like an unsore thumb.  In the midst of high-quality, serious films that were at least trying to be about something (several of which will be opening later this summer), Art Of Getting By was a crassly synthetic piece of sensitive-youth dross that seemed only to be about getting its writer-director Gavin Wiesen a major studio release.  (Which it did, but the joke was on the filmmakers--despite the backing of Fox Searchlight, the picture died in theatres last weekend.)  

The picture isn't worth much time or description:  it features George, a neo-Holden Caulfieldian hero (Freddie Highmore) who's too cool to do his homework--although he's read every word of "The Mayor of Casterbridge" and can describe its imagery at will--and a budding artist.  He falls for Sally (Emma Roberts, in a lesser version of her role from last year's It's Kind Of A Funny Story), who cultivates his friendship but doesn't embrace his deeper feelings.  George is surrounded by, you know, phonies, but finally, with the support of a remarkably sympathetic group of school officials (including Blair Underwood and Alicia Silverstone),  he has to dig down and prove what a man, and what an artist, he can be.  The only remotely interesting character is Dustin (Michael Angarano), a painter and mentor to George who's immediately identifiable as a creep, but turns out to be one with some nuances.  The film's level of banal unoriginality can be summed up thusly (with a mild spoiler alert):  the movie literally ends with a character going to the airport to fly away, maybe forever--only to turn around and appear back at school, so as to give George all he so richly deserves.  The Art of Getting By is all too accurate a title.