Terri (Jacob Wysocki) is a misfit who comes to school in his pajamas. He lives with his spaced out uncle (Creed Bratton). His vice principal Mr Fitzgerald (Jon C. Reilly) tries to reach out to him. Terri becomes friends with two other misfits. Chad (Bridger Zadina) is an angry wired loner, and Heather (Olivia Crocicchia) is the disgraced beautiful girl who got caught in a sexually permissive situation while in class.Jacob Wysocki is playing a very low energy character. They have to figure out how to show that character in a compelling manner. Watching him getting picked on all the time wasn't such a fun watch. Bridger Zadina has a nice role as the energetic crazy little guy. I think it would have been better to start the movie with them as friends. At least the movie would have the energy to drive it along. Olivia Crocicchia does a good job as the girl. The big scene feels voyeuristic. But all three kids play their roles well. It's an odd little film. I just wish they showed what happened to their friendship after that night.

Terri is an overweight teenager who lives with his uncle who as far as I can tell has burgeoning dementia. His parents seem to have been absent for some time and as such his living situation isn't ideal. He's in trouble at school, predictably a target for the scum of the school. He ends up getting in trouble and playing truant as a result. Cue first unlikely event - the head teacher, under the guise of disciplining him decides to make a special effort with him, meeting with him every Monday morning to review progress, give him advice. This unwittingly brings him into a new circle of outsiders, notably Chad who attaches himself to him like a leech. Terri sees 2 fellow pupils indulging in a sex act in the home economics class, for which they are to be disciplined and expelled. He stands up for the girl though, partly as he has a soft spot for her but partly because he did actually witness some coercion on the part of the boy. Cue unlikely event number 2 - the girl is ostracised by fellow pupils for her behaviour which leads us nicely into unlikely event number 3: Terri humiliates himself to draw fire from a teacher who's about to discipline her for a misdemeanour. The girl takes a shine to Terri after this. The rest of the film seems to be about his thrill and terror trying to process her sudden affections for him, while having to deal with Chad's strangeness. It's all put together very competently and acted very well and has a nice feeling about it, but here's my fundamental problem with this movie. In my experience of kids that age, there's just no way an attractive teenage girl would be condemned by fellow pupils for that incident - she'd become famous overnight and wouldn't be lacking for friends, let alone go begging amongst the lowest echelons of the school class system. Furthermore, it's just too big a leap of faith to imagine her being interested in Terri. Someone will argue it's perfectly possible but in reality I just can't see it. Kids that age are so conscious of looks/appearances and what other people think - especially the good looking kids, so I can't buy this scenario at all. Also I found the head teacher's behaviour towards him extremely unlikely. Maybe school's changed since 23 years ago when I left but back then the best a kid like that could hope for from a teacher or head teacher was to be ignored. Sad but true. And I suspect that hasn't changed one bit. So while there's some lovely ideas in play here, and it's nice to imagine that fantasy world, it bears no reflection on the real world out there, which apparently the story's set in. So I just couldn't make the leap of faith and the film got away from me in the end and started to grate on me. This is a shame as there was some good acting, and it was a great setup for a story, just not that one. I suspect anyone experiencing Terri's kind of difficulties in the real world would find this saccharin tale deeply annoying.

'Terri' has to be the most awkward movie I've ever seen…dang, I must've forgotten High School, it's been so long. This WAS high school for me, except for the fact I would Terri's Siskel to his Ebert. At any rate, it was an enormously slow-paced film filled with tension – I mean, you never know with these types of films: Will Terri pull out that gun and finally pull the Columbine on his peers? Will that principal ever hit on one of the male students? Will anyone do anything for the 105 minutes? Actually, I sound harsh on this – despite its low-key, high tension and awkwardness, I enjoyed it. The acting was FANTASTIC all around; the movie was incredibly real and touching, yet weird at times. You can never ever get your head around a lot of these complex characters, namely and especially Terri. I know I couldn't, but by the end, I did have a better appreciation for him. Great little movie. 4/5 Stars.

Jacob Wysocki is the Michael Cera of misfits playing the title character in Terri, who is a young outcast in high school because of his weight and his dress. He wears pajamas "because they're comfortable," rarely socializes, and frequently skips class. Something about his character makes him effortlessly likable and it's not because we feel sorry for him throughout most of the film.What makes Terri likable is his silent charm. His ability to speak softly despite the frustration that must be building up inside of him. He's a great protagonist, and it's not a problem that the story moves slowly because we take time to focus on an interesting character. This doesn't become a character study as much as it becomes a character fascination.After one too many tardies, Terri is sent to the principal's office. The principal is played questionably by John C. Reilly who is Mr. Fitzgerald who tries to form a friendship with Terri when it is clear he doesn't want one. They wind up becoming close acquaintances with a mutual fondness for each other. This isn't a contrived story of older man befriends misfit. This is the story of two world colliding to try and work out a problem. The result works, for the most part.One day in his home economics class, Terri sees his crush, term used loosely, being sexually violated by a classmate after obtaining consent. Terri is baffled by the situation, but then forms another mutual bond with the girl. The girl's name is Heather (Crocicchia), a beautiful girl not housing a terrible life, just unfortunate circumstances.Terri isn't out to form a typical romance story between two people of the same breed or to make the principal a motivational character in the boy's life. It's out to show the harsh reality and the hardships of being a teenager. This may seem like something that has been done a countless number of times, but rarely has a writer given characters like these a lengthy runtime and actually not force events on them. Writer Patrick DeWitt doesn't follow plot-point with plot-point, he lets the characters develop and find themselves at their own pace. Like real human-beings. No way can we see the full picture in a hundred and five minutes. Terri shows us that.My real gripe or quibble with Terri is its awkwardness. It is done purposely to create more of a sincere effect, but rarely do the characters say more than three lines at a time. There is a lot of dead air in the film and that can get frustrating. This resorts back to the "letting the characters develop at their own pace" aspect of the film. The characters are allowed to develop, but should also be allowed to say more involving dialog. I was hoping for not a parable, but just a few characters saying what's on their mind.I'd also like to mention that this greatly reminds me of a 1995 film I fell in love with a few months ago. The film is Angus and that and Terri have some grand similarities. Angus is a chubby outcast, as is Terri, both have social problems in school, and both live with people other than their biological parents. I liked Angus because of its spunk, its emotional effect it stamped on me, and the vibrant characters that I couldn't help but cheer for at the end. Terri lacks an emotional payoff. Not to mention, it's kind of odd how Angus was met with lukewarm reception in 1995, but now, sixteen years later, we get a film that has a resemblance to that and it's critically praised.Still, this is one of the better, more poignant coming of age tales I've seen in a while. I think the last one that truly moved me was Rob Reiner's Flipped. Terri is missing only three things that don't truly destroy a coming of age movie; an emotional payoff, a better ending, and a constant awkwardness. I can't lie that I fell in love with the characters, but I can say I wanted more out of them. 2011 has been a year of a lot of things. Between this and Young Adult it truly is also a year of abrupt endings.Starring: Jacob Wysocki, John C. Reilly, and Olivia Crocicchia . Directed by: Azazel Jacobs.