MARGARET

Margaret (weird title to me. Taken from a poem which somehow grapples with death and has great meaning to the director, Kenneth Lonergan but not to those of us seeing the movie) is one of those movies that could easily be as much about how the movie was made and all the machinations surrounding it than the actual movie itself: disputes, editing, lawsuits. I'd read about it and then heard a long interview with the director by Terry Gross on NPR. However, that is a sidebar, the movie is fantastic. The performances of Anna Paquin and J. Smith-Cameron who plays Paquin’s mother is Academy Award acting if I've ever seen it. Any parent who is involved with a narcissistic teenager will love this movie. In fact, if there were any way to insist that parents see this movie, relationships could possibly be repaired on a national basis. Parents would realize, "my selfish and disrespectful" teenager is par for the course. I can't say enough about the acting. In the movie, the mother and daughter team is realistic and movingly captured on-screen better than any movie I've seen. "Margaret" has everything: great story, good acting, funny while being sad. The sexual stuff with the teenagers was humorous and awkward, the way it is with kids--well done. With Matt Damon, the teacher, could as well have been omitted. There was a kid brother who got no attention and obviously a neat kid. He mainly gets yelled at. What is it with that? Rent this movie. A masterpiece as some have called it. Maybe?