User Reviews

Have you ever been riding along peacefully on the good old MTA, when all of a sudden at the next stop, a mob of kids just out of school fills the subway car or bus with raucous noise and energy? Often this can be quite an unnerving experience, to say the least. It was a similar experience that led French director, Michel Gondry, to make the fresh and original, dramedy, "The We and the I" which opened March 8th.

It's the last day of school, and a quiet city bus is transformed into a quasi detention center as it is filled with a gaggle of inner city teenagers getting ready for summer vacation. Gondry does not paint a glossy picture here. A group of bullies occupy the back row, where two elementary school kids are threatened, and an elderly woman is ordered to give up her seat. Near the front of the bus, a self absorbed princess (Laidychen Carrasco) agonizes over her sweet 16 party invitation list, and soon what seems to be a troubled young lady (Teresa Lynn) appears with a new blond wig only to encounter the relentless mockery of her peers, as she pines for one of the mean kids (Michael Brodie) . Vignettes make up the bulk of the largely plot less film. Save for the flashbacks, most of the action takes place on the bus.

The unsympathetic framing of the students works very well at first. Gondry cast real life New York teenagers from The Point, a community center in the Bronx, to give us a non judgmental glimpse of the world of these teens. Apparently Gondry spent three years work-shopping the story with the kids and it shows. Gondry's facility with the teens is impressive. The cast seem very relaxed and natural, and it almost feels as if we are fellow passengers on the bus as we eavesdrop on the various goings on. Gondry's visual style, used to such effectiveness in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is used to great effect here as well. The exploration of the teens use of video, texting and cell phones is done imaginatively in various flashbacks. The film has comic, almost magical realistic moments, for instance, when Laidychen's brother comes, Jesus like, onto the bus to settle a dispute, or when one of the nerdier kids lays it on thick about partying with Donald Trump.

Not all is sure footed here. With all of the jumping around between stories, many of the characters seem only partially realized and even cartoonish. More reflective scenes seem forced in the third act. Gondry also treads dangerous racial waters (a la Birth of a Nation) when all the kids lasciviously eye a beautiful white girl, riding her bike in slow motion. Also, I couldn't help but feel uneasy when I found out at the screening that a pivotal scene, where one of the boys breaks up with his lover, was actually an unscripted, and all-too-real moment captured on film. Ethical questions of exploitation did cross my mind--which begs the question if this could not have been more affecting, if it had been a straight documentary.

The attempt to connect us to the characters ultimately falls flat, and we, notwithstanding the attempts of the filmmakers, still feel like the "other"-- unable to relate to the stereotypes that are left on the screen. Perhaps this is what motivated Gondry, (very awkwardly) , to put a narrated letter at the end credits from the mother of some of the students, expressing gratitude for the kids participation.

Yet still, the energy and freshness of the teens, and the ambition of Gondry to communicate the journey from peer identity to self direction make this bus ride very worthy of the swipe.

This has got to be the worst ensemble of characters I've ever seen in a movie. Mean, rude, self-centered, obnoxious, loud, and overall unpleasant to watch, THE WE AND THE I tries to humanize the worst possible people that could ever get on this bus, but only winds up making me hate them more.

To it's credit, there's some things I like. Michel Gondry remains our most creative filmmaker right now and it's admirable to have his style applied to an urban ghetto setting. Plus, he does great work with mixing two settings to blend two different scenes. There's bits of his creative and whimsical charm sprinkled on this turd, but it helps elevate.

Sadly, he's still suffers from keeping it all in coherent fashion, and it's even more of an ailment here than anywhere else. The audio is muted by horribly mixed background noise, the dialogue is aimless, there's barely a plot or anything interesting to replace said plot, the acting is terrible, and a lot of subplots go absolutely nowhere.

But the biggest problem without question is the ducking characters. I hate every single one of them. Annoying, selfish, and at times dangerously close to abusive, I wanted to blow up this whole bus with all of these bastards with it. Not helping the fact that the film resorts to an unearned finale that makes them learn about life via a phony prose about life. It's deafeningly trite and cheap.

Gondry must be commended for this new angle in his resume, be once again he continues to suck at storytelling. His so-called "veritee" angle of acting directing only highlights how bad his actors are, and the whole thing just reeks of the worst possible people you could make a movie out of.

Oh, how I wish for another Charlie Kaufman collab.

boring, repetitive, pointless film... did i mention boring? shot constantly hand-held, this is a massive masturbation over teenager's small fights, games, and small stories during a bus ride on the back home from school. after about twenty minutes of teenager bickering and no plot whatsoever, one does wonder why on earth Mr. Gondry felt compelled to make such a vacuous film

quite a c r a p film compared to all the other masterpieces by Michel Gondry, I had to force my eyes open to get to the boring, non-ending.

do yourself a favour,save yourself two hours of your life that Mr. Gondry won't give you back.