Azazel Jacobs' "Terri" (2001)

Watched "Terri" with WL at the Angelika yesterday. A movie about an overweight teenage boy that does not divide people up into bullies and victims nor does it conjure up any miraculous transformation. Instead, it offers flawed people struggling to keep a shred of dignity, not least the headmaster Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly) who tries to turn Terri around when he himself is close to a divorce.

Jacob Wysocki is terrific as the titular character: a loving and sensitive young man hiding a deep well of rage and need. Bridger Zadina plays Chad, the fellow "monster" who reaches out to Terri. Olivia Crocicchia completes the trio as the girl with a bad reputation, Heather Miles. The scene with the three of them getting drunk on whisky and popping Terri's uncle's pills is a highly uncomfortable mix of aggression, seduction and hurt. It is one of the best things of the movie, besides the scene in which Terri catches sight of the beautiful hawk that has been feeding on the mice that Terri caught for it.

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