Spud movie review - Aussieboyreviews
CAN MOST TEENS RELATE TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF SPUD?
This likeable coming-of-age film focuses on teenage themes such as bullying, fitting in and friendship. Spud is just a satisfactory comedy-drama. Most of it is silly and forgettable.
Storyline
In South Africa 1990, it’s a 13-year-old student’s first year at a boys’ private boarding school where he deals with his peers and teachers.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Donovan Marsh
Cast: Troye Sivan, John Cleese, Sven Ruygrok, Genna Blair, Tanit Phoenix
Writer: Donovan Marsh
Release Date (Australia): 19 April 2012
Runtime: 107 minutes/1h 47m
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: South Africa
Language: English
CONTENT GUIDE (WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)
The film contains thematic material including adolescence, illness, bullying, death, grief and crude humour.
The film contains a scene depicting a character with a bloody injury.
The film contains use of words such as “s**t”, “crap”, “hell”, “damn”, “piss”, “wanker” and “bastard”.
None.
The film contains brief viewings of magazine images that feature breast nudity.
The film contains frequent and often crude verbal sexual references.
mpaa rating
NR (Not Rated)
Aussie boy's thoughts
Spud tackles teenage subject matter in both comedic and dramatic tone, but it does so in a way that’s incredibly predictable and extremely satisfactory. It’s average in its way by attaching to the overly familiar story of a teenage boy dealing with school stress, friendship, peer pressure, girlfriends and much more stupidity.
This sweet tale is undeniably quite adorable and is reasonably likeable. However, it’s not the greatest kind of likeable. Seriously, it’s simply only because of how the themes are treated. Alike any boys’ boarding school movie, there’s plenty of peer pressure and silly occurrences. They’re often funny, but also devolve too much into the predictable and overly normal state. These stories are also predictably accompanied by a few of “uncool” underdogs, which Spud definitely doesn’t ignore.
The performances? They’re fine. The result is the handful of quirky characters, teachers and students, who are amusing but just seem unlikeable. Spud isn’t unique or a true star or a hidden gem of a boarding school story, but it’s reasonably entertaining, resolving everything in a satisfying way. The actual plot and ideas are usually the main problem.
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