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Movies / On DVD / Bart Got a Room
Bart Got a Room

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Bart Got a Room (2009)

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Reviews Counted:34

Fresh:24

Rotten:10

Average Rating:6.3/10

Consensus: Just enough sweetness and good performances lighten up the high school-set tensions, creating a family-appropriate teen comedy.

Runtime: 80 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: Bart got a room--a hotel room--and he’s booked it for senior prom night. Though the title character of BART GOT A ROOM appears only in one brief scene towards the end of the film, it’s his... Bart got a room--a hotel room--and he’s booked it for senior prom night. Though the title character of BART GOT A ROOM appears only in one brief scene towards the end of the film, it’s his uber-geek specter that hangs over writer-director Brian Hecker’s comedy, a semi-autobiographical ode to teenage angst that aims for AMERICAN PIE-style yucks with a light edge of Philip Roth’s comic neuroticisms. The plot is centered on the hopelessly dateless Danny (Steven Kaplan), a gawky band nerd who must decide between taking his best friend, Camille (Alia Shawkat), to the prom, and attempting to woo the date of his dreams, a pretty blonde cheerleader. Along the way he endures derision and peer pressure from friends, as well as uncomfortably frank advice from his divorced parents, played by Cheryl Hines and William H. Macy (who sports a fantastically bad Jewfro). Set in the geriatric environs of terminally sunny south Florida, Danny’s world offers constant reminders of the road he’s headed down should he not solidify this one life-defining event: Macy’s Ernie grapples with loneliness by seeking women in chatrooms, while Hines’s Beth sees relationships as a shortcut to financial security. Kaplan gives a winning performance as the feckless, desperate Danny, coming across like a hormone-driven mix of Jason Biggs and Woody Allen. And while Hecker’s subtle screenplay doesn’t offer outsized laughs, it's notable for its lack of raunch and snark, a quality that sets this sweet indie comedy apart from the usual teen sex-romp fare. [More]

Starring: Steven J. Kaplan, Alia Shawkat, Jon Polito, Jennifer Tilly

Starring: Steven J. Kaplan, Alia Shawkat, Jon Polito, Jennifer Tilly, William H. Macy, Cheryl Hines

Director: Brian Hecker

Director: Brian Hecker
Screenwriter: Brian Hecker
Producer: Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Jai Stefan, Tony Shawkat
Composer: Jamie Lawrence
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment

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Reviews for Bart Got a Room

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Hecker has a firm grasp on editing for comic effect, and clearly knows how to use his actors to those ends.

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
10/18/08
Screen International

Hecker’s film finds a charm that eludes most movies dependent on misplaced prostitutes, bedroom sex noises and male insecurities.

Full Review Source: Vancouver Sun | comment Comment
05/15/09
Katherine Monk
Katherine Monk
Vancouver Sun

totally wacky, a rite-of-passage romp

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
05/09/09
Paul Brenner
Paul Brenner
Filmcritic.com

When we get to the prom, the music sounds like nothing you'd ever hear at one. In fact, I'd be surprised if any actual teenagers in the year 2009 found any reference points in Bart Got a Room relevant to their own existence.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
05/01/09
Jim Slotek
Jim Slotek
Jam! Movies

Here's something you don't see every day: a high-school comedy for old poops.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
05/01/09
Stephen Cole
Stephen Cole
Globe and Mail

Bart Got A Room is an affectionately nuanced comedy of manners whose focus is first love and the navigation of complex relationships.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
05/01/09
Greg Quill
Greg Quill
Toronto Star

...rarely holds the viewer's interest in as rapt a manner as Hecker presumably intended.

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
05/01/09
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

The sweet, dizzy finale makes up for all the predictability before it.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
04/09/09
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

Hines and Macy get some laughs, but the film itself feels insufficiently developed.

Full Review Source: At the Movies | comment Comment
04/06/09
Ben Mankiewicz
Ben Mankiewicz
At the Movies

It's an inventive take on a story that we’ve heard a million times before.

Full Review Source: At the Movies | comment Comment
04/06/09
Ben Lyons
Ben Lyons
At the Movies

While hardly the most novel of stories, what puts Bart Got a Room above the norm is a tight and charming screenplay and Hecker’s way with mood and place.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
04/03/09
Mark Keizer
Mark Keizer
Boxoffice Magazine

A fresh and amusing teen comedy all about the anxiety of trying to find a date for the prom.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
04/03/09
Pete Hammond
Pete Hammond
Hollywood.com

The sight of William H. Macy sporting a Jew-fro as a divorced dad trying to help his nerdy son score with a prom date is among the myriad delights in the gut-bustingly funny Bart Got a Room.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
04/03/09
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post

Bart Got a Room pulls you into its comically hyperbolic world of teen anxiety %u2013 and is solid enough for long enough to disappoint you in the end.

Full Review Source: Hollywood & Fine | comment Comment
04/03/09
Marshall Fine
Marshall Fine
Hollywood & Fine

A teenage comedy with an old-fogy scent.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
04/03/09
Jeannette Catsoulis
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Kaplan has that lean, awkward look of a colt still finding its footing, which suits Danny, and he does a good job with giving his character the naiveté and desperation of a kid hoping to change what seems to be the "loser" setting of his life.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
04/02/09
Betsy Sharkey
Betsy Sharkey
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Writer/director Brian Hecker has an impressive grasp on his material, from the swinging soundtrack to the old-school setting.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
04/02/09
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

Hecker's got a knack for teen misery, but he's aiming higher than beers-and-boobs moronity. What follows is excruciating excavated high school trauma

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
04/02/09
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

Big laughs, big heart, big teenage moments. Really understands high school and being young.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
04/02/09
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

If nothing else, the film serves as a cringeworthy reminder to us all about what terrible people we were in high school.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
04/01/09
Drew Toal
Drew Toal
Time Out New York
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Bart Got a Room

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