Grade: A-
I’ll start at the end: the last sequence of Words on Bathroom Walls, and the way it plays out, really stretches the limit of credibility – which is saying a lot for a movie about a teenager with schizophrenia. It reminded me of, and was almost as shameless as the Dramatic Late Arrival, famously chronicled in Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary. And the events of the ending and epilogue seemed to happen too easily. And yet, this is such a charming movie with authentic, endearing, grounded characters played by authentic, endearing, grounded actors that I left the physical theater (my first visit to one in 5 1/2 months) wanting to award this film the highest possible grade I’d give it.
Adam has schizophrenia. When he is not taking medication, or not taking any that works, he sees and hears things and people that aren’t really there. It reminded me of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. When he is “normal,” or rather, not seeing anything he shouldn’t, he has aspirations of attending a culinary school. He apparently can cook like nobody’s business, judging from the characters’ reactions to dishes he makes all throughout the movie. He is halfway through his senior year when a hallucinatory episode he has in chemistry class causes him to accidentally spill chemicals on a friend’s arm, burning it. He is expelled, and sent to a private Catholic academy to hopefully finish out the year incident-free and graduate. He meets Maya, the projected school valedictorian, and they form a friendship as she agrees to tutor him, all while he tries to conceal his condition.
This is not your cliched cookie-cutter rom-com. This isn’t a Meet Cute or reverse-gendered My Fair Lady. The movie is deeper, darker, smarter (for the most part), and has more to say – particularly about the stigma of mental illnesses. One of my favorite parts was when I thought the film was about to end. (It happens at the Never Been Kissed screening.) I was about to come back here and say it showed so much promise, only to suddenly run out of gas and crash-land. But then it turned out there was a lot more movie to go. I love being tricked and toyed with like that. I had to laugh and say “you got me.”
Performances are as effective as any I’ve seen in a film this year. Charlie Plummer carries the movie as Adam. He can pull off tortured and crazy without it coming across as gimmicky or actory. He has a nice resume already – he played the kidnapped John Paul Getty III in All the Money In the World – and I’m sure he will be one to watch. Taylor Russell, from the Netflix Lost In Space series, is indelible as the fiercely honest and supportive Maya. Molly Parker and Walton Goggins nail it as Adam’s mom and stepfather. There is a particularly poignant revelation about the stepfather’s character late in the movie. The always welcome Andy Garcia hits all the right notes as the school priest. I could list more. All the characters could easily have been cliches, but have refreshingly been fleshed out. These actors, and the writing, make them people you want to root for.
Words on Bathroom Walls is another of the best movies of the year, such as it is.
Grade: A-
Film Reviews by Mark 
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