Chone (Lee Paris) is a 16-year-old student who is smart and intelligent, trying to make sense of his world in director Robert Butler’s feature film Life Ain’t Like The Movies. The film explores the challenges posed on the teenager during the transition to adulthood. Chone’s journey begins with an assignment from his teacher, Mr. Peterson (William C. Ingram). He asks every student in his class to keep a journal so that each child’s impressions and sentiments will be recorded over the course of a year. But in the case of Chone, Mr. Peterson gives him a video camera because he has high hopes for Chone and sees that he has a love for the movie industry.
Increased self-reflection through video leads to his first challenge in life when Chad (Connor Kearns) an obnoxious classmate slurs Chone in class. The two become confrontational and in the presence of Mr. Peterson, Chone socks Chad in the face. Chone ends up with suspension and Chad is barely chastised. In suspension, Chad starts making advances on Chone’s best friend, Lola (Jhayla Mosley). They begin dating, and the now double-dealing Chad threatens Chone to stay away from Lola or else.
When approaching Life Ain’t Like The Movies, the first thing that stands out is that it is an independent title that isn’t exactly a blockbuster level production. Let me share my critiques from a technical perspective. The most problematic is hands down the sound, and it’s painfully obvious how the audio people tried to salvage the original footage by editing it afterwards. Sound seems to be an issue across the board and in the end one has to accept to live with it. The creators of the film, or rather the audio engineers should have gotten this one right and somehow had the budget to make it work.
The fights between Chone and Chad are the only two scenes that come to my mind that are drawn rather than animated. The fight choreography, along with its stage direction, is highly complex, coupled with the fact that there are minors involved, means that having them done in animation isn’t the worst of ideas. Yet, I mention this animation problem only to illustrate the inadvertent clue the animation offers that the film’s budget was miniscule, something you wouldn’t want to show the viewer.
Life Ain’t Like The Movies certainly has a story to tell. Unlike The Breakfast Club, its coming-of-age themes are not completely dealt with, but the film untouchedly captures the life of a boy trying to figure life around him. It’s also a touching story of a black family standing together. Life at home is tough more teenage tough. Chone’s dad, Jack (Wendell Kinney), is getting more and more let down with Chone’s attitude towards sports. Chone would rather read comic books and watch or make films than play sports. On the other hand, when Chone gets suspended from school for fighting, Jack is very upset and makes sure he gets in trouble too along with Chone.
Chone, however, escapes to his grandfather, Pops (Paul Bates). He teaches his grandchild that life is hard and there are times when one must stand and fight. Pops does give Jack some fatherly advice and tells him that he must learn to accept Chone for who he is and not for the person he wishes his son to be. It’s all pretty moving.
This movie marks the debut acting gig for a majority of the teenager cast and it is commendable how well it sets them up for the future. Paris Lee acts brilliantly and is an excellent actor, but his supporting actors are just as, if not better than him. As a filmmaker or an actor, there is no need to worry because everyone has to start somewhere, and the tools needed to create such films are already made available. So go ahead, explore and express yourself creatively. You have no excuses.
Life Ain’t Like The Movies has a little bit of drama loaded in it which reminds me of the afternoon targeted television dramas. Unfortunately for this movie, it is difficult to follow some parts because of the poor quality in sound. But overcoming those problems comes the story of Butler and it is very much needed by the youth. It has an inspiring theme
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