Harold (2008, PG-13)

This is an off-beat comedy about a 13 year-old boy who is very prematurely bald. What made it all the funnier is that he acts like a middle-aged man in several other ways: he hunches his shoulders and shuffles as he walks, he dresses the part, has non-youth style glasses, and yells at other kids to stay out of his yard. Like in Jesus Henry Christ, Harold is way too smart and mature for his age, and though he is intelligent he's not the genius that Henry is. Harold likes living in his town and he's comfortably a bit of a local celebrity, but when his family moves to a new town it's really darn hard being the new kid and bald. This movie has a humor and story style that makes it more of a movie for teenagers (give or take a few years) more so than most of the other movies I've reviewed, but as an adult I definitely enjoyed it. Though I do advise that, if your family is like mine, that parents watch it without their kids and kids watch it without their parents (it gets a little raunchy in some of the jokes/references, but as you can tell by the non-R rating it's not hard sex/nudity).

Cuba Gooding, Jr (Jerry McGuire, A Few Good Men), played the laid-back, kind of lazy, but somewhat world-wise janitor of Harold's middle-school. This is definitely not one of his more well-known roles, but he played it pretty well. Harold's mom was played by Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire), and it was kind of strange but strangely interesting to play the teen/twenty-something actress from '80's iconic films playing the parent in this teen/tween comedy. Harold and his sister have an amusing animosity/rivalry relationship but also have some moments of familial caring... much like an actual family... which is not unheard-of in cinema but it's still nice to see it done right.

If you liked Harvey Pekar's American Splendor (the movie; I haven't read the comic), then you'll like this. If you feel/have felt like you're ahead of your age (either physically or mentally/emotionally) then you'll connect with this movie. It does require some suspension of disbelief, as many comedy movies do, in terms of Harold's strange predicament and the events that occur, so if you're going to get hung up on realism, then you won't enjoy this. Keep your current mood in mind if you consider turning it on. I really liked it: for me it's a solid 4 stars.