Normal Adolescent Behavior
Normal Adolescent Behavior
R | 27 April 2007 (USA)
Normal Adolescent Behavior Trailers

High school student Wendy has an odd relationship with her five friends: They're openly sexual with each other, swapping partners every week. But this is all thrown into turmoil when she meets Sean, a new student in school who has a crush on her. Wendy wants to be with Sean, but doesn't want to disappoint her friends, whom she has known since grade school. When she does decide to leave them, her best friend, Billie, threatens revenge.

Reviews
Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!
MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise
Konterr Brilliant and touching
Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
t_gyul As human ethologists say, humans' natural social environment is a close group of 100 or less. Compare this to current lifestyle, especially in the West, especially in the US, especially for teens who are in the midst of a hundred people of their age alone. Lots of stress arise. It is only natural to cling to a small, safe and protective group (not to mention the bonobo-ish sex traits) if one is available. True, if you get used to it too much, you may not grow fit for the more competitive larger society.Wendy's dilemma is a common one, also apparent in foreign trade, in foreign policy, or often in choosing between traditional and modern ways of living. Isolation promises stability. Openness has the mantra: "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". Islands of stability are usually corrupted from the outside. The end of the Edo period of Japan is a nice historical example. In this film, the external threat is time with college approaching and, probably, instincts kicking in to have a usual family. Look at Billie. She is the ant soldier, the militant populist, the male chimp patrol team of the group. A good example of how inward cosiness somehow tends to entail hostility to strangers. For anyone outside their group, her actions seem exaggerated. But let's be honest, has anyone invented and stably operated 'us' without 'them'?Now should we be happy about Wendy leaving the group? In most aspects, yes. Her life-story will become more sustainable by this. Is it good for her to have been part of the group? Yes. She could relieve stress and pay more attention to her goals. She could experience what has become so rare and too often despised of: to be part of a real community. Should we learn from this movie to leave our close communities in general and behave more individualistically? NO! Communities, even if temporary, do have benefits. And look at this globalised world. There are no competitors outside the globe so we could afford less vigilance and more co-operation. But 7 billion people cannot all unite in person. We need groups of groups. And, somehow, less neurotic Billies.
freedomformumia This movie was...terrible. I rented it from the store I work at because I thought it looked interesting, and I was just so disappointed. At the bottom of windows media player, I have a little timer that shows how much time is left in the movie. With twenty minutes left, I realized that I didn't care about any of the characters. I barely knew them! The only character that showed any development was Sean, and that was him turning into a complete jerk for no reason.The movie makes no sense. Why would this chick ditch her best friends for a guy after knowing him for like two days, and continue to stay with him even after he starts treating her like trash? "I'M OFFERING YOU ME FOR THE FIVE OF THEM, WENDI!" Who cares? What is this guy,some kind of uber-boyfriend? And why was everyone in the movie so creepy? Also, the little brother had no point in the movie. He shows up for like a few minutes and completely creeps out Sean, then later on gets the hots for his mom. Then all of a sudden, BAM. The dad tells him that it's 'not a good time', and we never hear about that again. What, did Sean's parents disappear? The subplot is never resolved! It had some interesting dialogue, and it was kind of cool how the clique was just a microcosm of life as a teenager (or the media's portrayal of it, at any rate), but I just found myself bored watching this movie. If you're ever awake at 3 A.M. and have homework due, but decide to watch a movie instead, don't watch this one. It's unrealistic, uninteresting, and every single character will weird you out. Blah.
antonchuks POSSIBLE SPOILERS>> This movie was OK at best. I was expecting something a bit more risqué. The scenes with group sex in them had no passion or feeling at all. In fact the only part with any boldness was the 'spanking' episode, and even that fizzled out.This movie could have done with less heavy handed editing and maybe a little nudity. The poster makes it seem like something it isn't. It was also unfortunate that the plot with the brother and neighbor's wife never actually went anywhere. I don't know what that was all about, but it felt like a plot twist that got poorly edited out.The acting is pretty good, at least. Both Amber Tamblyn and Kelli Garner were great, cute and watchable.
gileadgrrl13 I was astounded by the very negative reviews I read here, I thought the movie Normal Adolescent Behavior was fantastic. The use of the group-sex pact I thought, really showed how people grow up and evolve. While some viewers may say it was over-the-top, I have to disagree, although the situation is pretty unusual, those kinds of things happen every once and a while, things that sound so bizarre, parents don't even take the rumors seriously. It was so thought-provoking, days after seeing this film I kept analyzing what relationships really mean, a major theme of the movie. You see how with all of these so-called "liberated" sexual practices in teen culture, such as nameless sex partners and girls going down on boys for status hurts teens' ability to have healthy sexual relationships. I, as a highschooler can also vouch that things such as the party scenes are not unrealistic, just kept very quiet. I talked to my mother about the issues of this film, and any movie that can spark discussions between teenagers and adults about sex, I think, is a good thing.