How I Live Now is about an American visiting her distant relatives in the middle of some farmy part of Britain because of her teenage problems (her mom died, she can't relate with her father, she wears black eyeliner, etc...). One thing I picked up on right away is that I'm 99% sure that the screenplay was written by brits. For example, one of the first things this drama queen asks of her newly discovered cousin, is "What age are you?" which I can safely say, said no American ever. But since the whole thing is set in England, we'll let it slide.
One thing that I loved about this movie: British children are way cuter to watch on screen than American ones. They are so adorable even when being placed in a world about to collapse. This is especially true as most child actors who sans a British accent often become one annoying catch phrase away from Michelle from Full House. Never have I wanted to punch an Olsen twin more in the mouth than when I was watching my Full House episode after school in the 90's. And let's be honest, there have been waaaaay worse child stars since then.
The actress who played Daisy fully embraced her anorexic, neurotic, punk rock ways and completely succeeded in making former wannabe punk rockers like me become green with envy and longing when remembering our skinnier days of suburban rebellion. Speaking of this actress, I would now like to take this time and state for the record that I hink she would have been way better than Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games. I pride myself on being one of the snobs that read the books way before everybody else did and I think I spent more than half of those movies eyeing the screen with one of those suspicious Larry David looks. I believe Honest Trailers got it right when they made this (spoiler alert: the best part of the video is when they say "stupid face"). And quite frankly, as someone who is from Missouri and whose family once owned a cabin in the state's southern region which ultimately was broken into and refurbished into a meth lab, I can say that Lawrence wasn't exactly selling me as a deer shooting, viddles eating, country bumpkin in Winter's Bummer. I'm sure she's a very nice person, but I'm pretty sure the casting director could've saved time and money by strolling down to the nearest Cracker Barrel south of the Mason Dixon to find a leading lady.
The movie was well paced, visually stunning, and haunting. Just check out this banjo strumming montage in the trailer below and tell me you don't just want to move to the boondocks, embrace your new life, have that new life put on hiatus during a brief stent in a post apocalyptic labor camp, get out to enjoy your new life again, and all while falling in love with your sexy cousin. Wait....what? Ewwwww, I forgot about that part.
Annnnnnyway, I was extremely proud of the adaptation of this YA novel. In a world where these types of books and movies come out faster than my hippie aunts can show up at a drum circle advertising free booze, I can honestly say that this one stands out. And this is how I live meow.
