It’s one of those Netflix movies that keeps getting churned out by the Netflix movie maker factory. This time it’s a generic looking thriller/drama called You Get Me about some young attractive teens caught up in romance, drama and weirdness. It’s as generic as a teen thriller movie can get and I’m not surprised it ended up distributed by Netflix, as it is just about worth the watch on a streaming platform.
Tyler (Taylor John Smith) believes the night ahead is the night he will finally have sex with his high school love Alison (Halston Sage). Due to a heated argument at a house party, they kind of split up, which leads Tyler to bump into Holly (Bella Thorne) who appears to be a normal girl trying to be spontaneous. This leads him to go clubbing with his new found friend, which then leads to alcohol, drugs, kissing and sex in a very luxurious home. Tyler sees it as a one night stand and Holly appears to be in agreement but they both agree it was a special night.
The next day Tyler and his ex-girlfriend Alison meet up and swiftly get back together, much to the dislike of Holly, who does not take this very well. You can guess the rest of the movie. I’m not kidding.
I do not think bad is the right word when it comes to these types of movies, because it has all the right ingredients to make it generically acceptable. It is just very, very predictable and boring. We have seen this all before in thrillers and horrors where relationships/friendships turn sour and one person in the group is just raving mad. In the case of You Get Me it is one of those movies you can put on in the background. The more the plot develops the less bothered you are. It does not help that Tyler, the guy affected by the whole ordeal, is bland and struggles to muster an emotion worth caring about. His love / social life is literally getting torn apart piece by piece, and his reaction does not match the seriousness of the situation.
It would not make a difference to your life if you watched it, but it also would not annoy you or ruin your day. It is just bland. As the story progresses the stakes get higher and higher, but thrillers are meant to grip you, and this fails to create any suspense. When Holly sends weird texts or when she turns up at a house unexpectedly, you are not phased at all by the situation. Heck, Tyler looks unphased by it too. In fact, all the characters look unphased.
This is really difficult to put into words but do you know how generic movies have generic performances? Generic performances do not involve bad acting. They all use the same formula to take on a role in a narrative that has been written up time and time before. The performances are not bad, but they are not good either. It’s just minimal acting required to get it over the line for each character. As long as they are all attractive. Who cares? I care, of course, but Netflix does not.
Each character is one-dimensional. Each personality is exactly the same. I’m not even joking.
You Get Me teaches you not to move on hours after breaking up with your ex, but seriously, if that’s a lesson that needs to be learnt then I would be worried. The movie displays such simple storytelling from start to finish that the premise could have been written by anybody. You understand each character in the first five minutes of the film.
If you have time and you want to watch something that requires no brain power to understand then give it ago. It’s not flawed. Just boring. You get me?
