My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea

2016

Action / Animation / Comedy / Drama / Thriller

16
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 84% · 73 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 55% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 1254 1.3K

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Plot summary

Dash and his best friend Assaf are preparing for another year at Tides High School muckraking on behalf of their widely-distributed but little-read school newspaper, edited by their friend Verti. But just when a blossoming relationship between Assaf and Verti threatens to destroy the boys' friendship, Dash learns of a cover-up by the administration that puts the entire student body in danger.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
February 25, 2018 at 06:00 PM

Director

Top cast

Susan Sarandon as Lunch Lady Lorraine
Margo Martindale as Mrs. Brinson
Maya Rudolph as Verti
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
711.67 MB
1280*538
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
1 hr 15 min
Seeds ...
1.28 GB
1904*800
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
1 hr 15 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by hancamreviews 4 / 10

Ambitious To A Fault

The Story: So, to start off, I will discuss the ideas that the movie has, and I'll admit that there are some good concepts here. You see, this film has several angles, ranging from a black comedy about a sinking high school, a disturbing disaster movie about the students trying to survive said high school, a social commentary on the flawed labels and cliques of the high school hierarchy, a story about two best friends getting into conflict and a trippy and exaggerated take on the making of the movie, and I can see how, on their own, any of these ideas could work to make a solid film, where the black comedy side could be used to satirise movies of a similar nature, the exaggerated origin side could be like mockumentaries ala This Is Spinal Tap, the disaster movie side could bring in some suspense, the best friends side could develop the characters and the social commentary side could serve as a good thinking piece about how high school society can hurt and even traumatise people for years to come.

It has a lot of good tools at its disposal that, with the right focus and attention, can make for a pretty solid feature. However, there is a catch to them, because if you remember, I said that these ideas can work on their own, and the film is so ambitious that it tries to tackle all these ideas at the same time. And this leads to the movie's biggest problem, being that it over ambitiously tries to do all these different concepts within the short amount of time it has, but in the process, leaves the story with no focus and undercuts every angle it tries to do, as the exaggerated origin side is barely present, the best friends side is established at the start then forgotten about until near the end of the film, the social commentary side only appears every once in a while and both the disaster movie and black comedy sides don't work since they constantly clash with one another, which also causes the tone to be all over the place.

However, the unfocused narrative isn't the only thing wrong with the story. You see, whilst the over abundant concepts are already bad enough for even a 3 hour long movie to handle, this film also has another detail I've barely mentioned, that being that it's shockingly short, as, if you include the credits, the movie barely clocks in at 75 minutes, which leaves the concepts with less dedication than they already did, because now, they have to rush through everything at such a fast pace that it makes the film harder to follow and renders itself nearly incomprehensible. And it truly is a shame, because I really think this had some massive potential and could've even made a solid movie, but because the filmmakers ambitiously thought they could fit in every idea they had despite the already minuscule amount of time at hand, it just feels like wasted potential.

There really were some good concepts that could've worked well for an animated film, but in the end, do they mean anything if they're just scrambled into an unfocused mess of a story? (4/10)

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The Animation: Okay, so maybe I had some big issues with the story, but who knows, the feature could be capable of making up for it by having some nice animation. I mean, Dash took inspiration from several different sources in the world of animation, ranging from films and shows like Fantastic Planet and Speed Racer, to styles like limited animation and even to famous figures like Ralph Bakshi and Osamu Tezuka, so surely, he must've put that long list of inspiration to good use, right? Well, yes and no. When it comes to the ideas for the animation, there is some solid stuff that could've worked rather well, but its style does have some problems and pretty distracting ones, too. Now, I'll start off with the positives here, and say that the designs are very well done, working well to show that this film is more rough and sketchy than you'd get from mainstream animation, as well as allowing for some decent use of simplicity that can help bring to mind a comic book made by a teenager, which certainly does fit considering that the movie is set in a high school.

Also, one impressive element of the visuals is the cinematography, as there are some impressively well-crafted and beautiful shots that show that the filmmakers definitely are talented at giving a really mesmerising and filmesque look to the feature. However, with the good stuff out of the way, there is a bit of a problem with the animation, and that is its style. Now, when I say the style has an issue, it's not that it tries very little to make itself look unique, in fact, the issue is that it tries way too much to look unique, to the point of looking out of the ordinary for all the wrong reasons, as like the story, it mixes in so many things at once, ranging from cheap to smooth, grainy to vibrant, minimalist to busy and much, much more, doing so to the point it becomes overwhelming and hard to sit through. In fact, the visuals are so overwhelming that this is one of the few films that actually made me feel queasy when watching it.

Now, I know that it seems like I'm exaggerating, and it could just be me who felt this way, but it really was difficult to enjoy the animation when my stomach churned whenever I looked at the screen, meaning I couldn't acknowledge the clear talent present because I was constantly distracted by its cluttered style. Not to mention that, when it comes to the character animation, it can be pretty mixed, where sometimes it's pretty smooth and polished, but other times, it can look rather awkward and stiff. And this really sucks to say, because I can feel that there's a talented crew behind the animation and they definitely earn my respect, but because of the movie's overly ambitious nature, it's hard to really appreciate everything the animation offers when it tries too hard to stand out to the point of being hard to watch or even stomach.

I know there's some talent and effort present and the team definitely tried as much as they could, but due to the film's biggest issue, the animation just feels like too much. (5/10)

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The Characters: Well, despite the movie's ambition problem, it actually didn't do much with the characters, in fact, I don't think it really cared much about them, as due to the feature focusing on trying to be too many types of films all at once, it leaves the characters with little to work with, only giving the bare minimum. First, there's the main character Dash, based on the director himself, who's an egomaniac who loves talking and building himself up as a talented genius, but is quite brash and rude to his best friend Assaf, and let me say right away that Dash is insufferable, where for most of the movie, he constantly boasts about himself and treats Assaf like dirt, giving him a nasty impression, and even if he does apologise to Assaf and tries to change by the finale, it doesn't fix much when most of the time, he's been a selfish ass.

Next, Assaf is Dash's best friend who starts having a blossoming romance with their fellow editor Verti, who has trust issues from her past bullying that's only brought up briefly a few times before it gets resolved in the finale, Mary, a popular overachiever who slowly becomes more aware of the issues with high school popularity, Lunch Lady Lorraine, the tough lunch lady who lost her husband years ago, Brent Daniels, a senior at the high school who's crude and perverted despite his reputation and Principal Grimm, the principal of the high school who now feels remorseful for what happened to the students.

Now, these characters may not have much in terms of writing, and what little there is is pretty sloppy, but if there's one good thing I have to say about them is how they have some good voice acting behind them, where the actors are clearly trying their best with what little they had and help give the characters something useful. Does it salvage them in any capacity? No way, they're lost causes, but I will give credit that the actors did try their best with what they had, and did a decent job.

Though the characters don't try so hard that they hinder themselves as everything else in this film does, they're instead hindered by the fact that they didn't try at all. (4/10)

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Well, this was disappointing, I was really hoping that this feature would end up decent, but instead, my hopes just ended up sunken. My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea is an animated film that does have a crew of talented people behind it and some promising ideas if given the right dedication, but it tries too hard to insert everything it has on display in very little time to the point where it barely utilises any potential that it might've had. Sure, it's got some decent ideas, solid voice acting, some impressive elements of visuals, such as the cinematography, and even a nice score by Rani Sharone, but the movie's constant over ambition and short runtime hinders itself by trying to do too much with most of its ideas, resulting in a story that's both a narrative and tonal mess, rushed pacing, animation that can get overwhelmingly cluttered and bare bones characters.

Now, despite what I've said about this film, I would recommend for people to watch it to see if they will like it or not, because it could just be that I didn't really mesh with the feature like others have, and if other people can get into it, then more power to them. Personally, I do truly respect the people behind this for simply attempting to make this film, let alone succeeding to do so, and frankly, I can appreciate their dedication, so it really is a shame I didn't get into this. I can respect Dash for trying, but I just hope he does better next time. (4/10)

Reviewed by / 10

Reviewed by RforFilm 8 / 10

My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea exposes the hollowness most school social scenes are and fills them in with colorful substance

Social hierarchy defines the high school experience for most teenagers. On the verge of adulthood, these kids love to follow their peers on MTV and wherever their inspiration comes from to emulate them. Though rather then adapting it to their home life, they would rather take that life. For most kids, they simply cannot become a Karadashian nor an best selling novelist on the spot, so they try to duplicate the mannerisms of their idols to try to prove people that they are just as good as them. This is what makes the high school social life full, but also hollow and pointless.

The queen bee may be the most popular girl on campus, but will come face to face with wannabes in college. The Dungeons and Dragons geek may hate their lives in physical education, will come to find a friendlier crowd in the real world. I've come to find the high school social scene a lot like a filming of an MTV reality show; full of people that think they know the world despite being in it less then eighteen years. The multitude of that experience and it's deeper levels are explored in the oddly titled, My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea.

Young sophomore Dash (played by Jason Schwartzman) is contently convincing himself that his school newspaper is popular and that he's one of the best writers in school. The truth is that he would rather focus on publishing gossip to get people to read. His best friend Assaf (played by Reggie Watts) and fellow student Verti (played by Verti) are annoyed by his ego and ask Dash to leave. Dash fumes that the rest of the world does not understand him and cannot wait to leave to try and write a book. What he doesn't know is that he's about to live through a great story.

The day was already stormy, but rotting roots finally pushed the school into the Pacific Ocean. Now sinking, the students and faculty are scrambling to call for help and making it out as the building is drifting further out to sea. Dash teams up with popular girl Mary (played by Lena Dunham) to get to the top floor where the seniors are. The find Assaf and Verti along with lunch lady Lorraine (played by Susan Sarandon) fight through the water and dead students to make it out alive, along with seeing the problems of school cliché groups and administrative bureaucracy.

Kind of like Your Name, My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea is another surprise animated movie that I liked. It's story of getting out of a sinking high school is both a parody of disaster movies, and a deeper story about the hollowness of the life inside of it. Some might question the short seventy-five minute running time, but the pacing makes it feel like a well balanced story and enough for it's animation style.

Not only do we hand some hand-drawn animation, but the film also slips into paintings, sketches, and even abstract art that combines several elements. I can see this as an acquired taste, but animation fans should be welcoming of something this risky in an age of computer animation.

The voice acting is great for the cast that it got. My favorites were Lena Dunham, who captures the insecurities of a queen bee, and Susan Sarandon, whose character is so interesting, that I wouldn't mind seeing a spin-off story about lunch lady Lorraine. If I had any problem, that would be the main character who can be a tad selfish. I know a lot of kids are like this, but I think that Dash could have been written a tad more relatable (like dwelling more into his obsession with wanting to be popular). Otherwise, I have to commend this movie for entertaining me with such a bizarre premise.

I'll give this eight high school papers out of ten. This movie is oddly animated in a crude manner, but it's final result is deep. Even if animation is not your forte, I'd try to give this a chance and see how it can fill a hollowness with plenty of substance.

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