Daydream Nation (2010)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Cynthia S

  
  I've noticed a trend with movies these days that deal with teenage girls with much older men, and that's to make the teenage girl seem mature beyond her years and "in control". Meanwhile, reducing the older man to a sniveling, whiny, pathetic little boy is supposed… More
  I've noticed a trend with movies these days that deal with teenage girls with much older men, and that's to make the teenage girl seem mature beyond her years and "in control". Meanwhile, reducing the older man to a sniveling, whiny, pathetic little boy is supposed to make it less creepy?? Wrong, doesn't make it less creepy. This subject can be done well, like American Beauty, but this one misses the mark by a landslide. Go watch (or re-watch) American Beauty instead!

• Nicki M

  
  Hmmm... It was okay. Something about it didn't quite grab me, but it was an interesting film and I can't find any real flaw with it. Cast are all fine. Kat Dennings in particular is good here as a rebellious and manipulative teen. Worth a watch, but not something I would… More
  Hmmm... It was okay. Something about it didn't quite grab me, but it was an interesting film and I can't find any real flaw with it. Cast are all fine. Kat Dennings in particular is good here as a rebellious and manipulative teen. Worth a watch, but not something I would watch again in a hurry.

• Sanjaya &

  
  Since I know that Kat Dennings starred in this movie, I really looking forward to see it.. And after what I saw for almost 100 minutes, I must say I'm impressed with Kat Dennings performances.. She is one of my favorite young actress right now and I think she could have a great… More
  Since I know that Kat Dennings starred in this movie, I really looking forward to see it.. And after what I saw for almost 100 minutes, I must say I'm impressed with Kat Dennings performances.. She is one of my favorite young actress right now and I think she could have a great career in the future.. The other cast also did a good job like Reece Thompson, Andie MacDowell, and Josh Lucas.. Even the story is related to drugs, affair, etc., but I enjoyed watching it..

• ♥˩ƳИИ &

  
  Cast: Kat Dennings, Reece Thompson, Josh Lucas, Andie MacDowell, Rachel Blanchard, Natasha Calis, Quinn Lord, Calum Worthy, Katie Boland Director: Michael Goldbach Summary: City girl Caroline Wexler (Kat Dennings) feels like she's spinning her wheels when she moves to a… More
  Cast: Kat Dennings, Reece Thompson, Josh Lucas, Andie MacDowell, Rachel Blanchard, Natasha Calis, Quinn Lord, Calum Worthy, Katie Boland Director: Michael Goldbach Summary: City girl Caroline Wexler (Kat Dennings) feels like she's spinning her wheels when she moves to a small rural town, where she's got nothing in common with anyone -- except her disarmingly handsome teacher, Mr. Anderson (Josh Lucas). But when Caroline tires of their clandestine affair, Mr. Anderson isn't ready to let her go. My Thoughts: "Many people have not liked the film, but as usual, I am one of the few who loved it. I loved Kat Dennings in the role of Caroline. She was completely meant for this part. She plays it well and is fantastic in the movie. Josh Lucas is the seduced teacher in the movie. He seems completely normal at first sight, but eventually the crazy in him starts revealing itself. He is quite good in the role. His character is amusing to say the least. Reece Daniel Thompson as Thurston, was great in the film as well. I liked him and Kat together. The movie has quite a bit going on. You have a student/teacher affair, the occasional ghost, a serial killer, a fire, tragic accidents, cancer, and a girl just trying to find herself in the midst of it all. Caroline feels all her emotions and lets them drive her, which is why she finds herself in some unthinkable positions. It's an strange, out the box kind of movie that is original in it's own ways. One of the more darker comedy films I have seen in a while. I enjoyed all the different things that were happening and that it didn't just focus on one event taking place. Made it more realistic. Not everything a peachy perfect and this film reflects some of that. The film also has some pretty good music in it as well. Definitely worth seeing."

• E.J. B

  
  In an attempt to channel Juno by way of Drugstore Cowboy, Daydream Nation is an interesting, strange, but stunningly accurate portrayal of high school life in a run of the mill hick town through the eyes of one girl. Kat Dennings plays Caroline Wexler, a tomboy with a sassy wit about… More
  In an attempt to channel Juno by way of Drugstore Cowboy, Daydream Nation is an interesting, strange, but stunningly accurate portrayal of high school life in a run of the mill hick town through the eyes of one girl. Kat Dennings plays Caroline Wexler, a tomboy with a sassy wit about her who has just moved from the city to this small town where all the kids do drugs and pick on the outsiders. Add to that a serial killer who is abducting teenage girls and dumping their bodies into the woods. Dennings is superb as Wexler. She has that dark, mysteriously sexy look about her, and she uses it to make her character completely believable. Wexler seduces a teacher and also manages to woo a depressed introvert named Thurston. Wexler is older than her years, and her perspective on high school life prompts her to become a physical critique of it, much like The Comedian in Watchmen. Things quickly begin to spiral out of control, and everything reaches a climax in the most holiest of places for adolescents, a massive house party. Director Michael Goldbach portrays adolescence as it's own epic time period. It's interesting to see so many films like The Virgin Suicides, Donnie Darko, and to an extent Mean Girls that share this focus because it is so accurate in depicting teenage problems, despite the many scoffs of parents who don't think teenagers have it rough, High school can be one of the hardest experiences of your life, as it has the ability to make or break your growth into adulthood. This is the cruel reality of Daydream Nation.

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"I'm the main character of my life!"</i> Tells the story of a city girl who moves to a small town and becomes entangled in a love triangle between her high school teacher and a stoner classmate. <center><font size=+2 face="Century… More
  <i>"I'm the main character of my life!"</i> Tells the story of a city girl who moves to a small town and becomes entangled in a love triangle between her high school teacher and a stoner classmate. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> Daydream Nation has elements that work, but it seems that too much was thrown together for it to feel like a completed and strong narrative. I found that the big city to small town element wasn't raised enough here. It's the catalyst that makes her do the things she does, but it never feels as big an issue as it should. Daydream Nation has many of these things that should be more prominent. There are a lot of subplots that try to bring more depth to the town and the story. There is something about a serial killer roaming the streets killing young girls as well as some chemical fire that has people wearing masks. These are odd little things that ultimately have no bearing on the bigger picture. It would be nice if handled properly, but it feels more like a distraction. One of the quotes for this movie compares it to Juno and Donnie Darko, as if David Lynch were to direct it. Well, it's not that weird. There are mentions of the end of the world, which did remind me of Donnie Darko, but that's about as far as it goes. I had a Dazed & Confused vibe from it, minus the decade/coolness/party vibe that Dazed and Confused has. Daydream Nation is a film that has too many things going on, it confuses itself as to what story it wants to tell.

• Walter M

  
  My favorite moment in "Daydream Nation" comes with an expert destruction of the word 'slut' which should then be dumped from the vocabulary. Otherwise, there are certain details in the movie that I am fond of that include the Atom Egoyan reference(admittedly this… More
  My favorite moment in "Daydream Nation" comes with an expert destruction of the word 'slut' which should then be dumped from the vocabulary. Otherwise, there are certain details in the movie that I am fond of that include the Atom Egoyan reference(admittedly this is a Canadian movie, so maybe the filmmakers had to put that in there) and a nice cast.(I like Josh Lucas, so sue me, but he is wrong here.) One overall thing the movie does right is in its unsentimental depiction of the life of teenagers in a small town. Without anything to keep them on their toes, boredom seeps in, followed by drugs and alcohol and then violence but I think the subplot about a serial killer only identified as a man in a white suit(no connection to Alec Guinness as far as I know) is a little too over the top. The problems emanate from a story never much interested in going anywhere at all. Caroline(Kat Dennings) moved to a small town with her widowed father(Ted Whittall) and attends a high school where the only thing she can be bothered to take an interest in is Barry(Josh Lucas), her hip young English teacher, recent returnee from the outside world and soon to be lover. And then the movie ambles down a series of literary asides so far that the only sign of hope at one point is Andie MacDowell. That and cool references, which prove Caroline has a better education than the public school could provide for her, will only get you so far. And for a movie that so desperately wants to be as cool as its anti-heroine, the strangest thing about "Daydream Nation" is Kat Dennings playing a character named Caroline.

• Glenn G

  
  Kat Dennings made a huge impression on me in NICK AND NORA'S INFINITE PLAYLIST. Her pouty self-confidence reminded me of a brunette Gwen Stefani with less flexibility but better comic timing. She's great at conveying intelligence, but vulnerability isn't totally in… More
  Kat Dennings made a huge impression on me in NICK AND NORA'S INFINITE PLAYLIST. Her pouty self-confidence reminded me of a brunette Gwen Stefani with less flexibility but better comic timing. She's great at conveying intelligence, but vulnerability isn't totally in her wheelhouse. I was anxious to see her new film, because she's front and center, thus I thought she would get to display many more shades. DAYDREAM NATION, while visually stunning, is a mostly unsatisfying mish mash of everything from DONNIE DARKO to TWIN PEAKS, JUNO, TWILIGHT and even a little POISON IVY. Self-conscious and overly referential to things teenagers today would never cite (Sonic Youth? Roman Polanski? Atom Egoyan? Really?) the film bites off way more than it can chew. It would have been enough to be about a teenage city girl who moves to a small town and upends everyone's value systems. It would have played like a less frenetic HEATHERS. But writer/director Michael Goldbach didn't want to stop there. He added a serial killer, toxic pollution, mental illness, drugs, car accidents, a slightly time-bending structure and cutesy chapter titles to the mix, out what? Boredom? I knew we were in trouble when our protagonist, who comes across as smug, amoral, and quite unlikeable at times, narrates the film with all of its somewhat dead end subplots and gets to her own character at about the 40 minute mark. It took Goldbach 40 minutes to realize we had a main character who was a cipher until that point in the movie. Dennings, however, won me over a little later when she confronts a fellow student in the bathroom and fills her in on her miserable future. Condescending material, but potently delivered. In fact, there are so many appealing moments, that I stayed with it. I enjoyed so many of the characters, especially Reece Daniel Thompson as her down-on-his-luck boyfriend and Josh Lucas as the teacher with whom she carries on an illicit affair. Lucas is fun until his character spins off the rails, because the script told him to, and because this film isn't just about coming-of-age, it's about how a town can rot your insides and make you crazy. It's about how life is beautiful if you look at it from the right angle. It's about powering through the muck in order to come out of it a better, changed, grown-up. It's just too much. The serial killer subplot is truly odd, as I assumed we had a juicy whodunit framing the film....but that, along with an unsatisfying drug-induced seizure storyline, a mother (Andie MacDowell) who pursues Dennings' father, and the deaths of several students, are strands kind of left dangling quite randomly. Had Goldbach focused on making Dennings a vulnerable character behind the strong mask, he would have had a much stronger film. Too many plot strands, an everything but the kitchen sink approach to storytelling and an incredibly uneventful and unsatisfying ending get in his way. This is no cookie cutter film, so I give it a lot of credit. I just wish it had a clearer focus.

• Beth M

  
  Very quirky, edgy and somewhat similar to the way Juno was potrayed. It was fun and I really enjoyed Kat Dennings as she really did play an extremely intriguing character. For me though, Josh Lucas was one of the highlights of this film. I have always been a big fan of his and he… More
  Very quirky, edgy and somewhat similar to the way Juno was potrayed. It was fun and I really enjoyed Kat Dennings as she really did play an extremely intriguing character. For me though, Josh Lucas was one of the highlights of this film. I have always been a big fan of his and he didn't fail to dissapoint in this at all. It's not predictable and it takes you on a wild journey. Thorougly enjoyed and despite it's weirdness, that what makes it so special. A definite must see as it's refreshing and something that not many people have seen before. Very well thought out storyline too and although what I wanted to happen, didn't, I was still impressed with this great and somewhat dramatic film.

• Nick G

  
  This movie is a bit muddled -- but it isn't bad. There were some comments that this was Juno-esque so I went in expecting a comedy.. wow, definitely not the case. In fact, IMO.. calling this a black/dark comedy is even a stretch. I find that more for comedies about dark… More
  This movie is a bit muddled -- but it isn't bad. There were some comments that this was Juno-esque so I went in expecting a comedy.. wow, definitely not the case. In fact, IMO.. calling this a black/dark comedy is even a stretch. I find that more for comedies about dark subjects -- ie: Just Buried. I didn't see much humor in this movie at all. This was a dark, surreal, indie relationship drama.. with large splashes of quirky interludes and cut scenes. It reminded me more of a Chumscrubber or Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys than a Juno.. it even had that sense of impending doom the entire movie, felt a bit of a Donnie Darko edge. You knew something was going to happen.. and there were 3 or 4 branches it could have taken.. you just didn't know when and what. It took shortcuts though and definitely could have used a bit more story direction.. but production, acting, writing in general/dialogue, were all great.

• Kevin "

  
  Had its moments, but I think the movie had to many ideas going on at once and couldn't really tie them all up completely and others I think they just forgot about. 5/10

Read all 11 featured audience ratings