You Get Me

This movie is a mess from beginning to end. For starters, there are plot holes large enough to sail an aircraft carrier through. The lapses in common sense even in the warped logic of the movie are confounding and not suspenseful in the typical horror movie way where the audience feels compelled to yell, "Don't open that door!" when a murder seems imminent. Despite the attempts to realistically convey drinking and drug use among teens at parties, as well as issues like "slut shaming," casual sex versus waiting until a couple is ready, and growing up relatively poor in an otherwise affluent community, it's hard to imagine most teens -- especially teens who contend with these issues in real life -- identifying with the characters in any meaningful way. The issues feel shoehorned in, in an attempt to make characters who otherwise ooze privilege, beauty, and easy access to pristine beaches somehow as human as the rest of us.

Even forgetting all that for a moment, the storyline is so similar to so many other "stalker" movies already released that it's hard to fathom why this was made in the first place. While it seems plausible that the actors, who are at least trying to bring something to the table, could have delivered something better with a few more takes and a few more rewrites, it appears the filmmakers were more concerned with the style of getting the swimming pool lights just the right pastel shade, or the electronic dance music cued up in just the right moment. And right before it seems You Get Me might have the courage to deal honestly with mental illness in teenagers, it chickens out and just establishes that Bella Thorne's character isn't just "cray" but certifiably so. Such cavalier dismissal and exploitation of mental illness is as good an indication as any of how lazy and half-baked this movie is, and it seems like it's only intended to be fodder for late-teen frat-bros to ogle Thorne while thinking sexist thoughts about the "crazy women" they've met at their own parties.