It's Kind of a Funny Story - C

On DVD and Blu-ray

No, it's not. 16 year old Craig (Keir Gilchrist) is depressed and fakes some suicidal ideation to get admitted to a mental hospital. After some brief interactions with the "real" patients, he quickly changes his mind and want to go back to his parents (Jim Gaffigan, Lauren Graham) and sister. But the shortest length of every admission is 5 days, and Craig is stuck. Can you imagine all the life lessons he'll learn? Of course you can!

The other patients include Emma Roberts (as Craig's developing love interest) and Zach Galifianakis (as a pseudo-mentor). Galifianakis plays a lower-key version of himself - which is fine - but he's borderline overexposed as an actor. In effect, Galifiankis has the Jack Nicholson role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (animated, smart, and only pretend crazy) which means Craig has the Brad Dourif role (suicidal teen). And can you imagine how boring that classic film would be if it focused on Billy rather than McMurphy? Now you can!

The film is written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the duo responsible for Half Nelson and Sugar. Those films were delightfully unpredictable and made quiet observations about human nature and desire. In their latest, you know exactly what will happen to Craig and can probably call each scene like an expert pool player calls his shots. Gilchrist is fine, but not dynamic or charismatic enough to break out of his self-pitying role. C