"Let the hanging begin."
That's What I Am is a coming of age story circling a bunch of 8th graders about tolerance. Its themes about bullying and prejudice are not original at all and since it's deliberately set in the 60s to have a subplot about homophobia it feels kind of outdated and too restrained to surface level commentary to become something effective and memorable. The set up for the story is pretty flimsy with most characters introduced never growing out of the trope role they're set to be. The film tries to build an interesting schoolyard microcosm at points but these moments are often too brief to stick and make a consistent overall picture. A lot of the adult characters are just very boring in their stubborn onesidedness and make the confrontations more frustrating than engaging. This includes WWE star Randy Orton's role which is nothing more than a very one-note homophobic abusive parent. While I want to say that Orton did give a pretty decent performance for what he's given the character itself just isn't very interesting. Some of the kid actors give quite decent performances but most of their characters are way too underdeveloped to let the sentimental moments have much effect. Daniel Yelsky gave one of the most engaging performances in the movie as one of the supporting characters.
While the story is very weak especially in the first half of the film and quite cheesy throughout all of it it does manage to finish in a decently heartfelt way that somewhat saves it from being a completely forgettable bland flick.
That's What I Am is a coming of age story circling a bunch of 8th graders about tolerance. Its themes about bullying and prejudice are not original at all and since it's deliberately set in the 60s to have a subplot about homophobia it feels kind of outdated and too restrained to surface level commentary to become something effective and memorable. The set up for the story is pretty flimsy with most characters introduced never growing out of the trope role they're set to be. The film tries to build an interesting schoolyard microcosm at points but these moments are often too brief to stick and make a consistent overall picture. A lot of the adult characters are just very boring in their stubborn onesidedness and make the confrontations more frustrating than engaging. This includes WWE star Randy Orton's role which is nothing more than a very one-note homophobic abusive parent. While I want to say that Orton did give a pretty decent performance for what he's given the character itself just isn't very interesting. Some of the kid actors give quite decent performances but most of their characters are way too underdeveloped to let the sentimental moments have much effect. Daniel Yelsky gave one of the most engaging performances in the movie as one of the supporting characters.
While the story is very weak especially in the first half of the film and quite cheesy throughout all of it it does manage to finish in a decently heartfelt way that somewhat saves it from being a completely forgettable bland flick.