Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (film)

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life is a 2016 American live-action/animated family comedy film directed by Steve Carr and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer and Kara Holden, based on the 2011 novel of the same name by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts.

Middle School:
The Worst Years of My Life
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySteve Carr
Produced by
Screenplay by
Based onMiddle School: The Worst Years of My Life
by James Patterson
Chris Tebbetts
Starring
Music byJeff Cardoni
CinematographyJulio Macat
Edited by
  • Wendy Greene Bricmont
  • Craig Herring
Production
company
Distributed byLionsgate
Release date
  • October 7, 2016 (2016-10-07)
Running time
92 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8.5 million[1]
Box office$23 million [1]

The film stars Griffin Gluck, Lauren Graham, Rob Riggle, Isabela Moner, Retta, Thomas Barbusca, Andy Daly, and Adam Pally. It follows Rafael "Rafe" Khatchadorian, a middle school student played by Gluck, who sets out to break every one of the many rules made by his domineering principal.

Lionsgate released the film on October 7, 2016. It received mixed reviews and grossed over $23 million. A sequel is in development, however production is currently unknown.

Plot

A transfer student named Rafe Khatchadorian, who has an overactive imagination and is very passionate about his artistic talent, lives in a middle-class home with his mother Jules, his rebellious younger sister Georgia, and Jules's lazy, child-hating boyfriend (later fiancé) Bear. Rafe cannot wait to start his first day at Hills Village Middle School, but it is not as exciting as he believes when he finds out that Principal Dwight, and most of the teachers at the school, are very cruel and much worse than the bullies.

After Dwight destroys Rafe's sketchbook by throwing it in a bucket full of acid, Rafe and his best friend Leo come up with an idea to start a massive "insurrection" to go up against Principal Dwight breaking every rule in the rule book. They unleash several pranks on Principal Dwight and the rest of the school staff, including putting sticky notes all over the school, filling Gus the janitor's closet with plastic balls, dyeing Principal Dwight's hair pink, and turning the school's trophy case into a fish tank. As the school's annual B.L.A.A.R. test is coming up, Dwight sees an opportunity to eliminate Rafe's class from the test. Rafe, along with his fellow classmates, are suspended for the pranks being caused throughout the day before the B.L.A.A.R. . In addition, Rafe's teacher Mr. Teller is suspected to be involved so Principal Dwight fires him. Dwight then offers Rafe a deal to let his class take the fall and he'll be the only one not suspended.

However, Rafe deliberately turns on the sprinkler system, breaking yet another rule, Dwight immediately expels him. It is revealed that Leo is actually Rafe's younger brother who died from cancer and he imagines him whenever he feels lonely. Jeanne Galleta, a student who is Rafe's love interest, reveals to him that Dwight created an alibi by putting fake evidence in their lockers in order to stop their class from taking the B.L.A.A.R. Rafe devises a plan to stop the B.L.A.A.R. test and expose Dwight along with Jeanne, Georgia, and the other students who were suspended. The next day, Teller and Superintendent Hwang watch the evidence and decide to press charges on Dwight and as he walks out he is pranked with green hair dye in his hat. Principal Dwight is fired and arrested, Jules breaks up with Bear after finding out his true nature, and Rafe says goodbye to imaginary version of Leo and shares a kiss with Jeanne which breaks rule #86, no public displays of affection, thus completing operation R.A.F.E. as Leo watches in an imaginary UFO.

Cast
  • Griffin Gluck as Rafael "Rafe" Khatchadorian, a rule-breaking but well-meaning middle schooler and aspiring cartoonist who attends Hills Village Middle School.[2]
  • Lauren Graham as Julie "Jules" Khatchadorian, Rafe's mother.[3]
  • Rob Riggle as Carl "Bear", Jules' immature and child-hating boyfriend/fiancé who tries to send Rafe to military school, but ends up getting dumped by Jules when she sees his true self as a "self-centered jerk".[3]
  • Thomas Barbusca as Leonardo "Leo" Khatchadorian, Rafe's imaginary best friend and late real younger brother who passed away from cancer.[3]
  • Andy Daly as Principal Kenneth "Ken" Dwight, the strict and exceedingly vain principal of Hills Village Middle School who is obsessed with the B.L.A.A.R. Testing and becomes Rafe's main goal of revenge.[3]
  • Adam Pally as Mr. Teller, Rafe's friendly and fun-loving English teacher who dislikes Dwight and Stricker's antics.[3]
  • Retta as Ida Stricker, the stern vice-principal of Hills Village Middle School and Principal Dwight's accomplice.
  • Jacob Hopkins as Miller "the Killer", a large school bully who targets Rafe, but later joins his plan to battle Dwight.[4]
  • Alexa Nisenson as Georgia Khatchadorian, Rafe's smart younger sister.[3]
  • Isabela Moner as Jeanne Galletta, the intelligent president of the AV club and Rafe's love interest who helps him in his plan.[3]
  • Efren Ramirez as Gus, the disgruntled janitor who later joins Rafe's plan to get revenge on Dwight.[3]
  • Isabella Amara as Heidi
  • James A. Patterson as James, a restaurant manager at an Italian restaurant where Bear proposes to Jules on her birthday.
  • Gemma Forbes as Dana, a waitress at Dave and Buster's.
  • Jessi Goei as Bella, a phone addictive girl who joins Rafe's plan to get revenge on Dwight.
  • Luke Hardeman as Shon, one of Teller’s students who joins Rafe's plans of revenge.
  • Angela Oh as Superintendent Hwang, the superintendent of the school district that Hills Village Middle School is in.

Animation voices provided by Jeremy Culhane, Stephen Kearin, Tom Kenny, Mike Matzdorf, Michael Rapaport, and Jacob Vargas.

Production

On August 4, 2015, it was announced that Steve Carr would direct the film adaptation of James Patterson's 2011 novel Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, with a script written by Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer.[2] Although Carr originally planned his next project to be an R-rated comedy, he accepted the offer to direct the film due to his connection with the character of Rafe, as he would doodle out his angst during his early teen years; this became a habit throughout his film career, as he would doodle what shots would look like to cinematographers he worked with.[5] Patterson gave Carr a lot of freedom from the source material, and the director chose to make the film adaptation more of a family movie than the young-kid-orientated book.[5] He was also able to choose cast members for Middle School, which was unlike his past projects and he appreciated that as he was able to choose some "great improvisational comics."[5]

Other details were announced on August 4, such as Griffin Gluck playing Rafe Khatchadorian, Leopoldo Gout and Bill Robinson producing the film, CBS Films producing it as well as handling international sales, and Lionsgate handling domestic distribution for CBS.[2] On November 12, 2015, more cast were announced for the film, whose script was also written by Kara Holden; it was also announced that Patterson would co-finance the film through his James Patterson Entertainment, along with Participant Media and CBS Films.[3]

Holden categorized Middle School as a comedy drama film with a moral of learning and making the best out of difficult situations. In writing the female characters, Holden tried to make them unique from the "boilerplate girl" types typical in other films: "I definitely wanted them to be full of life like the girls that I know and to have that spunk." She used the "fun, spunk and spirit" of her niece to write Georgia, and the "alter ego of what I wished I could be" to flesh out Jeanne's character.[6]

Principal photography on the film began on November 21, 2015, in Atlanta, Georgia,[4][7] and wrapped on January 19, 2016.[8]

Release

CBS Films distributed the film through its partnership deal with Lionsgate. The film was released on October 7, 2016.[3][4]

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life was projected to gross $8–10 million from 2,822 theaters during its opening weekend.[9][10] It went on to open to $6.9 million, finishing 7th at the box office for its first weekend.[11] It finished its theatrical run with a total gross of $23.3 million, making it a moderate success against its $8.5 million production budget.[1]

Critical response

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 63%, based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10.[12] Metacritic reported an average rating of 51 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[14]

Variety's Joe Leydon commended director Steve Carr for grounding the film's comedic aspects in a "candy-colored facsimile" of reality and the cast for admirably performing their roles, highlighting both Gluck and Daly as "well-matched opponents", calling it "A youth-skewing comedy-fantasy with possible cross-generational appeal."[15] Deborah Dundas of the Toronto Star praised the performances from the cast and the overall humor and aesthetics that appear throughout the film, concluding that: "As they manage the world between childhood and being a teenager, this film gives middle school kids a way to deal with their shared experience — overbearing adults, school bullies, first crushes, impossible rules — and giggle at the things that grind ’em down."[16] Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle found the film to be reminiscent of the teen movies of John Hughes, saying that: "Deft filmmaking moves quickly past the film’s implausibilities (like how Rafe pulls off some of his more elaborate stunts in the limited overnight hours, or how he even physically gets back to school), and particularly good performances by the cast’s younger members help make the story credible."[17] The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck also felt the movie channelled its inner Hughes, calling it Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the tween demographic. He added that the film "delivers an easily digestible and amusing portrait of youthful hijinks that should well please its target audience […] prove modestly successful in its theatrical release before enjoying a long life in home video formats."[18]

Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club gave the film a "C−" grade. He wrote that: "[T]hough its title and general tone lament the stifling atmosphere of the years between childhood and full-fledged teenhood, the movie misses the animal hostility and physical awkwardness of genuine tweens."[19] Keith Watson of Slant Magazine wrote that despite the "good-natured irreverence" throughout the plot and the capability of its adult-aged comedic actors making moments "winsomely breezy," he felt it was by-the-numbers overall saying, "Unimaginatively directed and indifferently shot, the film never establishes a distinctive voice for itself."[20] Alonso Duralde of TheWrap felt the writing throughout the movie, despite displaying its younger actors as being "consistently endearing", hampered any moments of comedy and drama to feel "strained and mawkish," making the plot come across more as "a third-rate Saved by the Bell knock-off than a legitimate teen flick."[21] Tom Russo of The Boston Globe found the adaptation "comedically flat" with its squandered visual gags and contributions from its adult cast, putting it alongside similar films like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.[22]

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray, DVD, digital download and Netflix on January 3, 2017.[23]

Accolades
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
Annie Awards February 4, 2017 Best Animated Special Production Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life Nominated [24]

Potential sequel

On October 3, 2016, Patterson announced that he is developing a sequel to the film.[25]

References
  1. "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
  2. Ford, Rebecca (August 4, 2015). "CBS Films Enrolls in 'Middle School' Based on James Patterson Book Series (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Valence Media. Archived from the original on June 21, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  3. "CBS Films, Participant Media and James Patterson Assemble Cast for "Middle School: the Worst Years of My Life"". prnewswire.com. November 12, 2015. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  4. Kroll, Justin (November 17, 2015). "'The Goldbergs' Actor Jacob Hopkins Joins 'Middle School' Cast". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  5. Fales, Melissa (October 18, 2016). "Steve Carr Brings 'Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life' to the Big Screen". Story Monsters Ink. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  6. Minow, Nell (October 14, 2016). "Interview with Kara Holden of "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life"". Movie Mom. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  7. "On the Set for 12/4/15: Gal Gadot Grabs Her Lasso for 'Wonder Woman', Brad Pitt Wraps 'War Machine', 'Resident Evil' Team Finish Final Chapter". ssninsider.com. December 4, 2015. Archived from the original on June 10, 2017. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  8. "On the Set for 1/22/16: Michael Fassbender Starts Shooting Universal's 'The Snowman', Antonio Banderas Wraps on 'Security'". SSN Insider. January 22, 2016. Archived from the original on February 5, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  9. McNary, Dave (October 2, 2016). "'Birth of a Nation' and 'Girl on the Train' Hit Box Office Tracking: How Will They Fare?". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on May 23, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
  10. Doty, Meriah (October 4, 2016). "'The Girl on the Train' on Track to Top Weekend Box Office With $30 Million". TheWrap. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  11. D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 10, 2016). "Hurricane Matthew Doesn't Slow 'Girl On The Train', But Overall Ticket Sales Lower Than Jonas; Controversy Conquers 'Nation'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  12. "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
  13. "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  14. "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  15. Leydon, Joe (October 7, 2016). "Film Review: 'Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life'". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on May 12, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  16. Dundas, Deborah (October 6, 2016). "Middle School is relatable for the tweens in your life: review". Toronto Star. Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  17. Baumgarten, Marjorie (October 7, 2016). "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  18. Scheck, Frank (October 6, 2016). "'Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Valence Media. Archived from the original on March 29, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  19. "Tweens can do better than the cartoon garishness of Middle School". The A.V. Club. The Onion. October 7, 2018. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  20. Watson, Keith (October 7, 2016). "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on December 30, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
  21. Duralde, Alonso (October 6, 2016). "'Middle School' Review: Pre-Teen Comedy-Drama Succeeds at Neither". TheWrap. Archived from the original on March 1, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  22. Russo, Tom (October 6, 2016). "Just can't wait to get out of 'Middle School'". The Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC. Archived from the original on March 15, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  23. "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life DVD Release Date January 3, 2017". DVDs Release Dates. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  24. "44th Annie Award Nominees". International Animated Film Society. November 28, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  25. Boedeker, Hal (October 3, 2017). "James Patterson's goal for movie: Get kids reading". Orlando Sentinel. Tronc. Archived from the original on November 12, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
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