urFRENZ, written and directed by Jeff Phillips and produced by Jana Winternitz, is a realistic drama about the lives of teens, their families and the draw and discord of social networking sites. When depressed and withdrawn Catharine meets a secretive boy online, she begins to come out of her shell. But is he a suitor or a stalker, a friend or foe? The questions surrounding his existence fuel obsession, denial and deceit among families and friends sending them headlong into a point of no return.
Filled with cyber gossip, studies and socializing, the story observes the lives of its characters as they try to make sense of a world of uncertain identities. The title is derived from the name of the social networking site that connects all of the characters.
urFRENZ – Review in Variety
by John Anderson
Inspired by the Megan Meier cyber-bullying case of 2006, the low-budget, high-reaching “UrFrenz” isn’t satisfied to merely dramatize the scandalous MySpace suicide, but uses its various aspects to open a window into Internet abuse, adolescent pathologies and the parental heart of darkness. Briskly paced character play skirts formulaic pitfalls via J. Soren Viuf’s creative handheld shooting and remarkable perfs by fledgling thesps Lily Holleman, Najarra Townsend and Michael Robert Kelly. Subject, and a sense of the genuine, could draw a niche aud of teens because they’ll recognize their online world, and parents because they fear it.
Helmer Jeff Phillips doesn’t spell everything out in his script; he lets the camera do much of the storytelling. Catharine (Holleman) virtually runs off the screen in the opening shots — she’s been running for awhile, it seems, and from herself. When she changes in front of a mirror, we see old, self-inflicted scars on her stomach, and fresher lacerations on her thighs.
Catharine is a “cutter,” and the cause, at least partly, seems to be her abandonment by her childhood pal Madison (Townsend). Resentment over being unfriended in real life explains why Catharine thoughtlessly passes along a nasty rumor about Madison and her boyfriend. Very little, however, explains the reaction of Madison’s mother, Debbie (Gayla Goehl), who slowly, but with increasingly venomous intent, uses a phony online personality named Brandon (played in Catharine’s fantasies by James Maslow) on a fictional site called UrFrenz to seduce the lonely, insecure and self-destructive girl. Where Debbie plans to take all this scheming isn’t clear at first, even to her, but imminent catastrophe seems to loom over every chatroom exchange.
Phillips doesn’t in fact give viewers what they expect, but he does deliver a perfectly plausible scenario for what, even in real life, was an unbelievable narrative. Debbie, having turned she-bear over the perceived abuse of her daughter by Catharine, has had the good fortune to hire high school senior Jacob (Kelly) as her real-estate-office gofer. Jacob becomes Debbie’s online guide to chatrooms and Web jargon, and while it isn’t quite clear what the otherwise decent guy thinks he’s doing — Debbie’s clearly not up to anything good — the tutorials he provides his boss in online culture also serve as a primer for auds unfamiliar with the language of social networking.
But what makes “UrFrenz” really special isn’t educational, but emotional: The waifish, underfed Catharine is oftentimes the picture of teen misery, and young Holleman makes her not just sympathetic but iconic. While Townsend and Kelly naturally capture the unpleasant attitudes of self-entitled teens, Holleman gives us the high-wire hormonal fragility of the unpopular teenage girl. All three should benefit largely from the showcase of “UrFrenz.”
Tech credits are generally good, and Lisbeth Scott’s score is perfection.
LINK TO ARTICLE:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117942219.html?categoryId=31&cs=1
urFRENZ: Something Every Teen and Parent Should See
by Lori Getz
Heart-wrenching, honest, thought provoking, important! urFRENZ is a movie that NEEDS to be seen by every teenager and parent!
Look, I’m not a movie critic and I understand I have no business trying to critique the direction, acting or writing; but I am most definitely qualified to tell you all the reasons why I loved this film.
Jeff Phillips, writer and director, pulled from his own family’s experience to paint a vivid picture of teen angst, parental confusion, and the growing digital divide between generations.
urFRENZ is the fictional popular social networking site where the drama unfolds. Catharine (played by Lily Holleman) meets a boy online who quickly becomes her whole world. But he is NOT who she thinks he is. A misguided deception leads to an inappropriate relationship, cyber-bullying, sexting, and the ultimate destruction of a young girl.
The movie is so realistic that I found myself relating to several characters. As a former teenager, I found myself re-living my first love as I watched the movie. My parents’ disapproval, my unwillingness to listen, my own deception to maintain a relationship I knew my parents wanted to crush. Was there anything they could have said or done to stop me from seeing a boy that was so clearly a mistake?
As a parent, I found the tension between the mothers and daughters most significant. The movie demonstrates how even a parent’s best intentions can be misunderstood by their teens or misguided in the execution. These mothers love their girls yet the daughters are either unwilling to listen or feel their parent is the enemy. How do we reach our teens? What can we say to them to help them talk to us? How involved is too involved? urFRENZ examines all of this and much more.
LINK TO ARTICLE:
http://lorigetz.com/2010/03/24/urfrenz-something-every-teen-and-parent-should-see/
