Beware the Gonzo
A teenager learns both the upsides and downsides of upsetting the status quo in this comedy. Eddie Gilman (Ezra Miller) is a high school student who has great ambitions of becoming a journalist and wants to write for the school newspaper. However, Eddie is low on the school's social pecking order, and when he angers the paper's self-centered editor, Gavin Riley (Jesse McCartney), he's bumped from their staff. Determined to have his say, Eddie starts his own underground paper, "The Gonzo Files," which tells the messy truth about campus stories and dispels the lies spread about some of the student body. Eddie and his staff -- including fellow geeky outcasts Scheenman (Edward Gelbinovich), Horny Rob (Griffin Newman) and Ming Na (Stefanie Y. Hong), and gossip victim Evie (Zoë Kravitz) -- become heroes at the school as "The Gonzo Files" becomes a hit, but Eddie's new popularity goes to his head, and he ends up on the other side of the same sort of rumors he wrote about himself. Also starring Amy Sedaris and Campbell Scott as Eddie's mom and dad, Beware the Gonzo was an official selection at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. more..
Director: Bryan Goluboff
Starring: Ezra Miller, Jesse McCartney, Edward Gelbinovich, Griffin Newman, Zoë Kravitz
When Gonzo divulges his classmates' darkest secrets, we're meant to disapprove of his transformation from swaggering New Journalist to WikiLeaks extremist. In the real world, we've still haven't decided which ethical version we prefer.
Too cute by half, Beware the Gonzo will appeal to the 20 people left on earth who insist on broadsheets over iPad apps and/or those bewitched by star Ezra Miller's pretty cheekbones.
The directing debut for screenwriter Bryan Goluboff, Beware the Gonzo isn't bad, it's just that for a film aiming to celebrate media rebellion it feels timid and unadventurous.
Its serious intentions notwithstanding, Beware the Gonzo is essentially a comedy with a mean streak; its portrait of the big man on campus is truly venomous.
A thoroughly amateurish effort at capturing clued-in and smartass teens.
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