Filmed like it was some kind of a documentary, this powerful drama is a real eye opener. A GIRL LIKE HER shows how painful, how piercing, how damaging bullying can be in this day and age where thanks to social media, the means to intimidate, threaten, and taunt somebody has increased significantly, there's about a dozen or more different ways to tell somebody to go kill themselves these days.
A GIRL LIKE HER uses today's popular hand held cam found footage style, but instead of ghosts and supernatural, it tackles the one problem that doesn't seem to want to go away from high schools everywhere, and that is bullying. You would think that after that one whole anti-bullying campaign a few years back, that our high schoolers would be in harmony, singing kumbaya with no problems anymore, but nope.
In this drama, Jessica Burns used to be best friend with Avery Keller, but like most friends, they grow up and grow apart, and one small incident causes Avery to feel resentful towards Jessica. From that point on, Avery victimizes Jessica in every possible way. But the whole high school sees Avery as a saint. And so Jessica's friend, Brian Slater helps Jessica hides a hidden digital camera that captures every evidence of Avery's harassment.
A documentary filmmaker and her crew visit South Brookdale high school to cover the story of the school's success, but they ultimately find a more pressing story in this particular ordeal when Jessica's suicide attempt shocks the entire school. What I think is powerful about A GIRL LIKE HER is that the story is all too common, meaning there is something usually the matter in the bully's home that motivates that bully to bully other people, that and the two opposing sides used to be best friends at one point in time, that is a common story in a lot of bullying cases out there, so A GIRL LIKE HER speaks to the here and now, it goes straight for the jugular, it's not one dimensional, it's not far-fetched either. And I have to give mad props to Hunter King's performance as Avery Keller, the way she tries to cover up Avery's sins, the way she tries to deny them, and the way she bullies, it doesn't get b*tchier than Hunter and she was very convincing. Why kids today still bully each other, I just don't understand, but perhaps bullying is not something that can ultimately be abolished once and for all. We have to keep constantly teach our young ones to respect and show kindness to one another and then hope that they too will teach their kids the same valuable lesson, it all starts at home.
Read more at Ramascreen.Com
