The Art of Getting By - Coming June 17

Director - Gavin Wiesen

Main Characters
George Zinavoy - Freddie Highmore
Sally Howe - Emma Roberts

It looks to me like The Art of Getting By is a movie that is going to speak to a lot of people. So many children and young adults are looked at as lazy or slackers when in reality, their passion cannot be satisfied by the rigid classroom systems that are employed in North America. Although I have the type of personality that thrives on routine and procedure, and I never had those problems, I certainly remember people that I went to school with that fell right into this category.

Freddie Highmore plays George Zinavoy, a high school student who's passion is obviously art. So much so that none of his other school assignments seem to matter much to him. Yet, somehow, he's made it all the way to his senior year.

He is befriended by Sally Howe (Emma Roberts) who is popular, but complicated. Sally sees George for who he really is, rather than what he appears to be at first glance.

I first saw Freddie Highmore in Finding Neverland and a year later in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But it was in 2007s August Rush that i really fell in love with the young actor. Now, four years later, he looks exactly the same, just taller, and I'm very excited to see him in action again.


Emma Roberts, best known to me from Nancy Drew  and  Valentines Day is a promising young actress in her own right. I have no doubt that based on the work she's done so far, she will have a great career based on her own abilities, not just getting by because of having shared a name with her famous aunt.

Other names of note in this movie are Alicia Silverstone who plays a teacher and Blair Underwood, who plays the Principal

I like that this coming of age romance/drama is going to be based around the kid who so often in school is the outcast. It seems to me like these movies often center around the athletes and cheerleaders, prom kings and queens. But we don't all fall in to those categories, and the rest of us need stories that we can relate to as well.