While not all the filmmakers' gambits work, this low-budget comedy is thematically daring and increasingly engrossing as it rolls along.
Dare (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:11
Fresh:7
Rotten:4
Average Rating:5.6/10
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In high school, what kind of person did you dare to be: risk-taking and lustful, melancholy and confused or simply safe and over-achieving? Dare follows three teenagers through their last... In high school, what kind of person did you dare to be: risk-taking and lustful, melancholy and confused or simply safe and over-achieving? Dare follows three teenagers through their last semester of school: Alexa (Rossum, Phantom of the Opera), the smart, good girl who longs to break out of her shell; Ben (Springer, Teeth), the lonely outsider dealing with his sexuality; and Johnny (Gilford, Friday Night Lights), the rich, seemingly perfect bad-boy who has everything. In a last-ditch effort to shake things up before graduating and start living as adults, this unlikely trio take the biggest risks of their lives. In the process, they learn no one is exactly who they appear to be. --© Image [More]
Starring: Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, Ashley Springer, Ana Gasteyer
Starring: Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, Ashley Springer, Ana Gasteyer, Alan Cumming, Sandra Bernhard, Rooney Mara
Director: Adam Salky
Director: Adam Salky
Screenwriter: David Brind
Producer: Mary Jane Skalski
Studio: Image Entertainment, Inc.
Reviews for Dare
The film lacks the comedic charm of American Pie, but with its dark, hyper-sexualization of teens, it offers an engrossing if not soap opera-esque tale of self-discovery.
Dare feels a bit unfinished, at once overreaching and underrealized. But there is a lot of intelligence, and considerable daring, in the basic conceit.
Quite good in brief stretches but not distinguishable enough overall, freshman director Adam Salky’s picture evinces the coming of age confusion he’s chronicling.
Dare is a high school coming-of-age film that dares to push the envelope. It doesn't always succeed, but that's not for lack of trying.
Director Adam Salky nails down the notion that when your fantasies come true, sometimes they are awkward and unsatisfying. There's a reason they didn't seem realistic.
The actors, all great camera subjects, help give director Adam Salky's overly pat movie a trace of confessional conviction.
Adam Salky’s high-school soap offers a virtual Spumoni of caricatured adolescent hand-wringing. When subtlety equals a drama-class performance of A Streetcar Named Desire’s rape scene, expect a bumpy ride.
Zach Gilford's game performance is still no match for the film's catalog of easy ironies, awkward framings, and advice on how to play Blanche DuBois cribbed from season 4, episode 2 of The Simpsons.
(The film) failed to ring true for me...Too many of the sexual situations struck me as contrived.
Adam Salky's entry into the coming of age genre ... tells the age-old story with a few interesting wrinkles.
Latest News for Dare
November 12, 2009:
Critics Consensus: 2012 Isn't Quite Earth-Shaking
This week at the movies, we've got a global catastrophe (2012, starring John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor) and some rock 'n' roll rebellion (Pirate Radio, starring Philip S.... More...
October 04, 2009:
New: Brand New Trailer and Poster. ![]()
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October 04, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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