Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer!

I've wanted to see this film ever since it came out, because it looked so inconceivably old school. Surprisingly, it's not a Nickelodeon movie, but it perfectly captures the summery, bittersweet aesthetic of live action kids shows and movies in the 90s, like Pete & Pete or Snow Day (granted Snow Day's from the year 2000).

Judy Moody wants to have the best summer ever, problem is her friends and parents are all going away. Her young Aunt Opal steps in to take care of her, but misadventure follows misdaventure and this summer is turning out a disaster! Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer is fun and carefree, with just enough drama to be engaging. Not to mention the excellent, exuberant camera work and solid performances throughout the cast. The premise is stock, but the plot is unique and universal.

Heather Graham puts in a glowing performance as the charasmatic, idiosyncratic and nurturing Aunt Opal, while Jordana Beatty acts with poise and showcases a decent bit of nuance in her command of emiting emotions with her facial expression, quite impressive for her age.

The film unfortunately recieved negative reviews, being handed the same absent-minded and lazy assesments that Ebert & ilk copy/paste into their ham-handed writing for pretty much any live action kids movie, condensing its redeeming features into having "bright colors" and calling it uninteresting. The critical zeitgiest is clear: the only admirable kids movies are animated. They'll lavish praise on any by-the-numbers Pixar film but if you make a film with actual humans in it, you've already made a fatal mistake. Even as a kid, I always prefered live action. Far be it for us to fancy something more relatable than talking inanimate objects, fairytale mentalities, and two-bit good vs. evil themes from centuries ago.

I certainly can't say Judy Moody ranks as one of my favorite movies of all-time, but it's a kids summer classic for sure and it's a spot-on new entry into a genre that has been conspicously and woefully absent as of late.