The Art of Getting By

Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: June 17, 2011

6.5	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 56 Ratings

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MarcDoyleJun 24, 2011

I agree with Bullet97 - it's not terrible, but it's the casting of Freddie Highmore which ultimately kills it. He looks like an infant compared to the smoldering Emma Roberts. You feel bad for the kid, but seriously, they needed a guy thatI agree with Bullet97 - it's not terrible, but it's the casting of Freddie Highmore which ultimately kills it. He looks like an infant compared to the smoldering Emma Roberts. You feel bad for the kid, but seriously, they needed a guy that actually looked a bit more like a high school senior that would get into this situation. And casting the jailed dad from Gossip Girl to play essentially the same role here as the guy's step-dad? Poor. So.. once you realize it's going to be bad, you start to have fun with it. I laughed. For some reason, a group of girls in my Santa Monica theater gave it a round of applause at the end. What's that about? Hmmm.... The music? (Wasn't bad - good Pavement song.)… Expand

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Telcontar77Apr 28, 2013

This is just a thoroughly confusing movie. There are so many ways it could have gone, but each time it is about to go in an interesting direction, it is restricted by some innate desire of the director to stick to cliches. If you want to seeThis is just a thoroughly confusing movie. There are so many ways it could have gone, but each time it is about to go in an interesting direction, it is restricted by some innate desire of the director to stick to cliches. If you want to see a plain mindless teen-love movie this is great, but anyone who keeps hoping for some originality ends up cringing from from the constant reversion to cliches.… Expand

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TylerDsCreationMay 25, 2013

The Art of Getting By is a film that tries and tries and tries to be something and then fails miserably to do so. It tries to be a touching dramedy that will make you laugh and cry but it didn't make me laugh, and the closest I ever got toThe Art of Getting By is a film that tries and tries and tries to be something and then fails miserably to do so. It tries to be a touching dramedy that will make you laugh and cry but it didn't make me laugh, and the closest I ever got to crying was when I has to listen to one of Freddie Highmore's awful narrations about how miserable his life is. That was probably one of the biggest mistakes, hiring Freddie Highmore to be in you movie. This guy is so dead pan and monotone that it gets pretty boring going through the story with him and that's not a good thing. If your going to spend a lot of time with someone, make them fun to be around, this guy just made me mad. When you main character is a whiny little dousche than he's not a likable character and what makes you want to root for him. The other "actors" in this movie were just as bad. Nothing special about them, no breakout roles there. Next is Emma Roberts who was okay. She was the only redeeming value of this film. She actually brought out emotion and I applaud her for that. Also she was extremely attractive.
Now don't even get me started on the writing. It was mindless, that's all it was. You can tell this screenwriter was trying, really hard too. There were things the people said in this movie (especially Freddie) where you could tell the writer was trying to be deep and thought provoking and try to channel the human condition, and it actually comes out comical more that anything. "We all live alone, we all die alone, everything else is just an illusion." That is just one of he many attempts at being something this movie definitely isn't. Plus that first part is from a much much much better indie Donnie Darko and it actually has meaning to it, unlike in this joke. And why would that keep a kid up at night? When I was younger I probably wouldn't even understand it, and I find meanings in things, even back then.
The actors and the script is bad, but one thing that really threw me for the loop here is that almost every action these kids take is probably one of the last things a kid that age would do. It's so stupid and just so...pointless. It gets me mad. Couldn't the writers have done a bit of a better job, really? Is it that hard to write this story about a slacker who finds a reason to get serious about his future. Pretty simple concept. Also the reason he decides to get serious about his future is painting and they barely touched upon that. It barely came up and that's the main point of this whole thing. All I can say is lazy.
So this film here was pretty terrible. The writing sucked, the acting was unsatisfactory and it didn't quite hit its marks. The only redeeming value for this is that Emma Roberts is really (really) hot. I don't recommend this to anyone.… Expand

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CCJohnsonJun 24, 2021

The script is predictable, trite and not very interesting, the dialogue contrived and the music annoyingly adolescent. But: it is a movie for young people and as such it may be a good enough movie, however the plot is thin and there isn’t anyThe script is predictable, trite and not very interesting, the dialogue contrived and the music annoyingly adolescent. But: it is a movie for young people and as such it may be a good enough movie, however the plot is thin and there isn’t any real tension building. It feels mostly like a young man’s own experiences and attempts at being cool, and then he wrote a movie. And then another but: the actors who somehow agreed to be in this movie certainly carry the weight of a bad manuscript. Basically it feels like someone rich and influential in Tinseltown has a spoiled slacker kid who wrote a script and mom and dad made it possible.… Expand

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