The Last Movie I Saw

Terri is the kind of movie that makes you believe it is still possible to tell a story on a human scale in a fictional film, without relying on exaggeration, special effects or star power to grab and hold an audience. Director Azazel Jacobs' establishes a tone that rings true from the first frame, and never wavers in presenting a story of a generally goodhearted kid who is working out how to cope with the largely unfortunate circumstances that he has little control over at home or at school. A loner at the beginning of the story, he discovers that there may be something to gain from developing some friendships, though his efforts in that regard are somewhat tentative at first, and not always successful as it becomes clear that even other goodhearted people can let you down. But at the end, one is left with the impression that Terri has recognized that he has at least some control over what comes next, and that certainly had me leaving the theater in an upbeat mood. It's really strange to me that this kind of film is so rare today, by which I mean I don't get why they don't appeal to large audiences-- or more to the point, why aren't they given the kind of distribution that makes them available to a mass audience. You certainly see elements of this kind of story in more big budget affairs (I'm thinking, for example, of The Blind Side). But in those cases, the manipulation of the audience is so calculated and blatant, while a movie like Terri comes off as totally unpretentious and real. It's like in the former case, the goal is to elicit a cathartic "awww" from the audience at the end; while in the latter case, the goal is to promote empathy for real people, who are recognizable in (if not literally represented by) the characters in the story. I'm not really opposed to the concept of catharsis, but there's a huge difference between feeling like a good person because you went to a movie, and seeing a movie that makes you want to be a better person. I guess those two responses don't have to be mutually exclusive, but given that there were only two people in the theater when I saw Terri, I'm guessing producers see a lot more commercial promise in focusing on the much easier goal of producing that "awww," which is really too bad for all of us.