Injecting concern with laughter, this high school comedy stars John C. Reilly as a vice-principal who identifies with the biggest losers on campus. “Smart, gentle and instinctively wise.” — Roger Ebert
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Humanistic without being moralistic, and very funny, Terri is a measured, observational examination of the stratification of teenage loser-dom.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2011
Terri 2011
Not all the oddballs in this gentle, but sharply calibrated comedy of high school freak-hood are students: Mr Fitzgerald, the nervy vice-principal, suspects that he’s as big a loser as any of them. Played with sputtering comic brilliance by John C. Reilly, Fitzgerald even sees something of himself in Terri, a lonely watchful, giant tub of a boy so inured to schoolyard taunts that he turns up to class in his pyjamas. ‘Life is a mess, dude,’ is teacher’s mantra as he plays furtive social catalyst, nudging Terri and his other favourite ‘at-risk’ kids toward mutual outcast appreciation, not something outcasts are generally noted for. When Terri and his new friends party it up, the air crackles with potential – and that includes the potential for any one of them to flame out. Terri is funny not just because it’s dead-on, but also because it’s clearly and unsentimentally on the alienated team. Fear not: no one here seriously expects you to cuddle a freak. — BG