Terri (film)

Terri is a 2011 independent comedy-drama film about the friendship that develops between an oversized teen misfit and the garrulous but well-meaning school principal who takes an interest in him. Filming took place in Los Angeles, California.

Plot

Overweight and depressed 15-year-old Terri Thompson starts to slack off in school and wear pajamas, to the chagrin of his teachers. Soon Terri is taken under the wing of unconventional assistant principal Mr. Fitzgerald, who creates a series of Monday-morning counseling sessions for social outcasts at the school.

Cast

• Jacob Wysocki as Terri Thompson, a shy, bullied, overweight teenager
• Creed Bratton as Uncle James, Terri's sick uncle for whom he is sole caregiver
• John C. Reilly as Darryl Fitzgerald, an unconventional but understanding assistant principal who takes Terri under his wing
• Bridger Zadina as Chad Markson, a mentally unstable student at Terri's school
• Olivia Crocicchia as Heather Miles, an outcast girl who may or may not have been the willing victim of a sexual act
• Melanie Abramoff as Amy
• Tara Karsian as Mrs. Davidson, Terri's homeroom teacher
• Tim Heidecker as Mr. Flemisch, the gym teacher
• Mary Anne McGarry as Mrs. Hamish, the office receptionist
• Jenna Gavigan as Samantha Goode, the office receptionist
• Justin Prentice as Dirty Zach
• Eddie Pepitone as Joe Hollywood
• Nelson Mashita as Robert, the custodian
• Josh Perry as Marcus Bloom

Reception

The film was released in January 2011 at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and later at the Florida, San Francisco, and Boston film festivals.

Critical response

The film currently holds 86% fresh ratings on the film review aggregation website Rottentomatoes.com.^[2] A.O. Scott of the New York Times said, "What lifts Terri above its peers is not the plight of its protagonist or the film's sympathy for him, but rather the care and craft that the director, Azazel Jacobs, has brought to fairly conventional material"^[3] and Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times called it, "...impossible not to love".^[4] Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars out of 4.^[5]

Terri opened in the United States in limited release on July 1, 2011 and achieved the second highest per location average for the holiday weekend (second only to Transformers: Dark of the Moon).^[6]

References

External links

• Official website
• Terri at the Internet Movie Database
• Terri at AllMovie
• Terri at Box Office Mojo
• Terri at Rotten Tomatoes
• Terri at Metacritic
• Review from Variety
• Review from Ain't It Cool
• HitFix Review