Surviving High School is the DVD based on four interesting and sometimes racy Lifetime stories. It all made for a fun and sometimes uncomfortable viewing experience. One dealt with bullying, the second dealt with racism, the third dealt with obsession, and the fourth dealt with drugs.
Odd Girl Out: This 2005 movie is about a girl named Vanessa (Alexa Vega) who used to be “in” and all of a sudden, she’s out. The movie dealt with some hard issues such as body images, bullying, and suicide attempts.
There was one scene where Vanessa had been tricked by her former friends and the pain that she felt was almost too much to watch. Sadly, these are issues that teens deal with all the time. Growing up is hard enough as it is, throw some bullies in the mix and it gets terrible. A message to anyone who is getting bullied, it gets better! I was bullied and I’m now doing very well for myself! Remember, God is on your side!
As hard as this move was to watch, it was still amazing and my favorite out of the four. Alexa Vega shows that she’s more than just a Spy Kid! Good for her!
Augusta, Gone: This 2006 movie is based on the true story about a girl named Augusta (Mika Boorem) who meets a girl named Rain (Tamara Hope) and starts failing school and doing drugs.
If you’ve seen Thirteen, then you’ll see that both movies are very similar. It should be noted that Thirteen is a movie for teens and Augusta, Gone is a movie for parents. Still, it was well done and Mika Boorem was excellent. It was very painful watching her destroy relationships, but it was still a good movie, it’s just not one that you’d want to watch all the time because of how raw and real it is.
The Perfect Teacher: This 2010 film tells the story about a high school girl named Devon (Megan Park) who gets a crush on Jim, (David Charvet) the new teacher. Her crush turns into a rage-filled obsession.
Megan Park is a very good actress and was perfect for this role. David Charvet was fine, but I felt like he was too calm in this movie. When his world turned upside down, I felt like he should have gotten more upset. There should have been times where he should have gotten angry or should have broken down in tears, but he just stayed calm. It was unrealistic.
This movie was racy at one point and and then scary at the next. Although this movie had me glued to the screen, I felt like some of the crime that had been committed was just too heavy for the film.
But, the question is, did I like the movie? It was fine. I believe that high school students that love a good, juicy story will get a kick out of this, especially if they like teenage soaps. Me? Not my thing. But it’s not a bad movie at all.
For One Night This 2006 movie is the true story about a high school with two proms, one for whites and one for blacks. No one ever questioned it, until one brave student named Brianna (Raven Symone) steps up to change things. Aisha Tyler plays a reporter named Desiree Howard that helps her.
This movie takes place in the south, but for some reason, Hollywood seems to think that we all sound like the characters from Gone with the Wind. These people may have had southern accents, but these accents were overdone. The way that they talked kept pushing me out of the film.
I grew up watching Raven Symone and I think that she’s a good actress, but it seems like the roles that she takes don’t display her talent like they should. However, I am proud of her for taking a role like this one, because this story needed to be told. I just felt like her talent was handled well.
Like I said, I did like the movie. This story needs to be told again and again. But, I felt like this would have made a better documentary. As a movie, it kind of lost me a little. I would like to get to know the real people that this movie was based on more and more of an update on what’s happened since then. But, the movie did succeed in getting me interested in these wonderful people.
I believe that teens will like this DVD set and I believe that some women will like it, too. I, for one, had a great time watching these movies and do recommend this DVD.
