Sorry, this movie sucks

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie begins with home movies of David and his mother bird watching. These home movies show up occasionally.In New York state, David's mother died a year ago and his father Donald is marrying her nurse Juliana. David is not happy about this.David continues to enjoy bird watching, and he's a talented artist as well. And of course he draws birds. His father's interest in birds involves killing them; he runs a small chain of fast food restaurants.David's best friend Timmy likes Evelyn, who is beautiful but may just like Timmy because he does her math homework.Timmy, David and Peter are members of the high school's bird watching club. In fact, one girl has quit and the guy who joined because he wanted to be with her is kicked out. So the three guys are the only ones left. How to increase membership? While riding his bike, David sees a duck he thought was extinct. He quickly takes a picture with inferior equipment, but the photo is not good enough to confirm what kind of bird he saw. He and the others consult Dr. Konrad, a bird expert. He gives them advice, including a prediction that the bird is migrating and will stop at a certain lake in Connecticut. David secretly plans a road trip with the guys that his father wouldn't approve of--especially since David could be late for the wedding.David asks Ellen for the key to the photo lab, and when Ellen discovers a special lens missing, she finds David and asks that it be returned. But when the guys explain, she agrees to let them keep it--IF she gets to go along AND take the special photo.And so the adventure begins. The kids need a car but only Peter is a licensed driver, and he's kind of a nerd and very nervous. Up until now he has been very confident and very logical. Timmy's cousin Eric has a car and he doesn't actually agree to let the boys borrow it. And are those drugs in the car? And who are those people in the van with the guns? Are they the people Eric is selling drugs for? And how did Evelyn get involved? The adventure includes laughs, arguments, serious discussions and even some danger. The kids learn a lot about each other and about life. And, yes, we see some birds too, and we hear them. This time they are not just background sounds. David knows the birds by the sounds they make. The scenery is great too.The big questions: Will the kids find the previously extinct bird? Will it in fact be the bird David thought it was? Will there be a romance? And will David make it to the wedding?This is a pleasant enough story, with apparently intelligent writing about birds and about life as teenagers. Alex Wolff is the standout actor here, if you don't count Sir Ben Kingsley. More about him later. But Timmy is a great character. And Katie Chang makes quite a contribution also. Ellen has a nice personality and is smart, but she has had trouble making friends because she moves a lot.Kodi Smit-McPhee does a good job of being an ordinary kid, and is most effective when David has to show grief.Ben Kingsley makes the most of what turns out to be a small role, but his first scene is not the only one. He really shows his ability later. This isn't the type of movie you would expect him to be in, but his presence adds to the movie.Is this is good clean family film? Not quite. There is some sex talk and some words make it to broadcast TV that younger kids shouldn't hear, though others have multiple meanings and must therefore be all right. When I saw this, fairly often, the sound went out and a character's mouth was blurred. One word in particular was actually used twice (though I heard a P once before the rest of the word was bleeped), once in subtitles when the guys were speaking Latin, and not to refer to a cat. But I don't think the revelation that Donald Trump used the word in a more vulgar way had any influence on the censors. I think they did their job long before the news about the Donald.I didn't care for most of the music (but of course this a film for teens), but the guys do like classical music, and several scenes involving the grownups, including the wedding, had jazz that would have fit perfectly in the great Woody Allen movie set in 1940 that I saw the same weekend I saw this.It's a worthy effort.

Call me crazy, but I think that a movie centered around birds should make sure not to include major bird errors. My boyfriend and I are both long-time birders and our social lives, weekend plans, and wardrobe choices usually revolve around our love of birds and birding. This movie had us cracking up (it's great to watch after a few beers) with how ridiculous it was. A Labrador Duck looks nothing like a Mallard. And it wouldn't be walking up a suburban street. You wouldn't find an eclipse plumaged White-winged Scoter walking up a suburban street either. American Kestrel just chilling on a roof? Nah brah. There are more than 3 critically endangered duck species, and West Indian Whistling-Duck is not one of them. They didn't even get the scientific name of the Labrador Duck correct. Also, who uses film cameras nowadays besides artists who consciously prefer them as a medium? I love the growing popularity of birding in pop culture, but please do it right! The basis of the plot (glimpsing this rare duck) is completely far-fetched, but other plot elements are also a little forced. The acting was decent in my eye, but the character development was lacking, and there were countless tropes. The script-writing could have been better, but we appreciated the frequent moments of absurdity. Like I said, an OK movie to watch after a few drinks and laugh at with friends, but as a whole, it lacked factual integrity.

David Portnoy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a big birder and is even in the Young Bird Society in his school. His mother is dead. His father Donald Portnoy (James Le Gros) is getting married to Juliana Santos (Daniela Lavender). His best friend girl-obsessed talkative Timmy Barsky (Alex Wolff) is also in the YBS. Then David thinks that he saw an extinct duck. Also Ben Kingsley plays expert birder Lawrence Konrad. The group goes in search of the duck with the help of student photographer Ellen Reeves (Katie Chang).This is sorta like 'Stand by Me' with bird watching for awhile. It worked better as such. It pains me to say this but the movie is better off without Ben Kingsley in the second half. There is a reasonable coming of age movie. It's nothing special or original but it's somewhat cute. I was hoping it could keep going on that trail. The arrival of Kingsley broke up the group's chemistry. It's still a cute little movie. Kodi does a great job as the geeky lead. The kids are very natural. I wish the movie kept with just the four kids in the woods.

Since maybe 2011 (around the time The Big Year was released), it seems that the sport or birding (known informally and incorrectly by many people as "bird-watching") has been flirting with mainstream recognition. An abundance of films on the topic have been made within the last few years, and basic research on my behalf shows birding events occurring all over the world."Absolutely anyone can be a birder. Except for blind people, I suppose," Ben Kingsley's character in A Birder's Guide to Everything, the latest entry in "birding cinema," if there were such a thing. The film stars Kodi Smit-McPhee as David Portnoy, a fifteen-year-old who loves birding and believes he has spotted a Labrador Duck, a species which is believed to have gone extinct. He snaps a blurry but somewhat discernible picture that erects hope that the bird is migrating to a common migration point that, of course, requires a coming-of-age road trip with some buds. David brings his assorted, quirky band of pals such as the rambunctious Timmy (Alex Wolff of The Naked Brothers Band fame), the awkward and asthmatic Peter (Michael Chen), and the group's crush Ellen (Katie Chang), pretty much because she's a female as they drive down in a buddy's car he technically didn't consent to loaning. If you're wondering where Kingsley comes in, he plays a birding expert, adding another element of diversity to his long-successful acting career.The reasons for chasing the bird are aplenty. A good part of the reason is the team's love and fondness for nature and the outdoors, but, according to Timmy, the benefit is that proving that the Labrador Duck is actually a living species will help them "fame-wise, money-wise, and vagina-wise." I almost forgot to mention A Birder's Guide to Everything's deals with some complex themes such as birding and the functionality of teenage hormones. The latter needs no explanation as to why I believe it's complex, but I believe birding is one of the most difficult sports around because of the fact that I think it would be hard or next to impossible to hold down a full-time job while being an avid birder. You have to be willing to travel all over the world in hopes of spotting a rare bird just for a few seconds, which will hopefully be another time for you to snap a clear picture of your subject.The film is another one of those contemporary coming-of-age films that follow a group of eclectic characters as they try to understand their position in life and what they're destined for in the real world. This usually helps when they have unstable homelives and are fascinated with an arbitrary topic such as birding. I use a tone of sarcasm here because of the fact that while A Birder's Guide to Everything really doesn't do anything wrong, these contemporary coming-of-age films are only a hair away from becoming a cliché. While I scarcely tire of films centered around teens and their struggles, many of these films are beginning to mesh together, what with last year's The Kings of Summer and Mud having very similar premises, despite both being brilliant films. If these films continue to be made with the same kind of quirky formula, eventually they will lose their uniqueness and become as cliché as the films centered around the nerdy guy getting the gorgeous girl.Even with this idea, A Birder's Guide to Everything is still a wholesome little exercise, smart, genial, and utilizes its PG-13 rating with plausibility. I always fear coming-of-age films with PG-13 ratings because that ultimately means sexual content and language are kept to a minimum, which is simply not reality in many teenagers' lives today. However, this film utilizes it conservatively but believably, not making the subject matter go out of its way to be offensive nor neuter itself to the realm of not being believable.It's also easy to appreciate the work by Kodi Smit-McPhee along with Alex Wolff, who got his start on the Nickelodeon program The Naked Brothers Band (but the less said about that the better). Both Smit-McPhee and Wolff have true potential to go on to be strong, capable actors in a wide-variety of work. Smit-McPhee portrays listless but not helpless in a way that works in a way that doesn't feel like a pitiful cry for cheap sympathy, and Wolff's energy and controlled goofiness carry his character.Then there's the fact that A Birder's Guide to Everything effectively illustrates how one man's passion is another man's bewilderment, seeing as David's father (James Le Gros) has no concept nor practical knowledge to how his son's fervent love for birding works. It's hardly uncommon for parents to be struggling at trying to identify their children's hobbies, especially in the tumultuous world we live in today, where the likes and dislikes of kids grow increasingly peculiar thanks to things like the internet. Co-writer/director Rob Meyer and Luke Matheny illustrate this by telling it like it is; David's father has no idea (or real interest) in what his son likes.A Birder's Guide to Everything is often just as odd as its title, but its warmness, depiction of an offbeat hobby, its quirky but realistic line of characters, and instances that beautifully detail birding and teen hormones are filled with all the tenderness and heart needed to make a project like this succeed as a whole.Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alex Wolff, Michael Chen, Katie Chang, James Le Gros, and Ben Kingsley. Directed by: Rob Meyer.