I really liked this movie.

The Art of Getting By tackles an idea that is very central to my own life experience – namely, how people who are a little bit different, who do not conform to the highly scripted and regimented expectations of our society, actually “get by,” or survive with their soul intact. The movie was advertised by implying the main character is a lazy, good-for-nothing slacker who “just gets by” with as little effort as possible, but this both misrepresents the movie and completely misses the point. He is trying to survive in the face of our stultifying education system that is designed to keep people stupid and docile and turn them into a usable member of a labor force; he “gets by” through a complete refusal to participate in this indoctrination, and this leads him both into trouble with authority, and on an interesting journey of self-discovery.

As is usually the case with dreamers like the main character, he has other ideas about what his life might be, and definite (if somewhat inchoate) opinions on the value of what he is being asked to do in school. He covers the insides of his badly written textbooks with his own exquisite artwork, yet even his art class is somehow unable to channel or develop his master passion in any useful way. School is useless to a person like him, and his parents are even more useless. But he meets a few friends who support him just enough for him to get his bearings in life.

I should point out that my somewhat adoring interpretation of this film’s theme might be over-representing its artistic profundity. This is not a deep film, and the dialog, while really excellent in some places, is a little uneven. But it is a very life-sized film – things feel very real, unglamorized, unsensationalized. It has some interesting things to say about art, the act of creation, and finding your way in life with no helpful guidance. In particular, the dialog between the main character and the struggling artist who becomes his mentor is fantastic, and the actor playing the mentor (Michael Angarano) gives a really excellent and wonderfully naturalistic performance. Through these scenes, the thought process that slowly leads to the main character’s partial liberation within society is pretty well developed and realistic. The Emma Roberts character is also intriguing; her relationship with the main character is multifaceted, both her positive and negative personality traits slowly influencing the gradual development of his approach to life. And it only helps that the film has a good and interesting score that is used very effectively.

I am not a Freddie Highmore fan, but I did like him in this film. I am an Emma Roberts fan, and as usual she gives a solidly good performance. The actors playing the teachers are a little stiff and uninspired, but the actors playing the parents and Emma Roberts’ friends are quite good.

I highly recommend The Art of Getting By. It is a fresh, interesting, and inspired little film.