What Goes Up (2009)
Average Rating: 3.5/10
Reviews Counted: 32
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 27
What Goes Up squanders the charisma of Steve Coogan with a lazy screenplay, contrived plotting, and overall poor production.
Average Rating: 3.3/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 14
What Goes Up squanders the charisma of Steve Coogan with a lazy screenplay, contrived plotting, and overall poor production.
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Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 11,957
Movie Info
A period comedy set in the 1980s, Jonathan Glatzer's What Goes Up tells the poignant story of a morally challenged New York reporter who connects with a group of high school outcasts while in New Hampshire covering the story of Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian astronaut. Arriving in McAullife's hometown, reporter Campbell Babbitt (Steve Coogan) is distraught to learn that an old college friend has recently committed suicide. Meanwhile, as Babbitt attempts to craft an unsung hero story about
May 29, 2009 Wide
Jun 16, 2009
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Cast
-
Steve Coogan
Campbell Babbitt -
Hilary Duff
Lucy -
Josh Peck
Jim -
Olivia Thirlby
Tess -
Molly Shannon
Penelope -
Molly Price
Donna -
Max Hoffman
Fenster -
Brenna O'Brien
Diminutive Girl -
Gabrielle Rose
Mrs. Bridigan -
Alexia Fast
Hannah -
Patrick Gilmore
Hank Pelzman -
Sarah Lind
Peggy -
Andrew Wheeler
Principal Person -
Aaron Brooks
Ezra -
Vanesa Tomasino
Landlord -
Kendra Sue Waldman
Dusty Drake -
Geoff Gustafson
Reporter -
Barry Greene
Sam -
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All Critics (32) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (27) | DVD (1)
About as cruddy as a cruddy little indie can get, especially given a cast that should've known better.
Top CriticThe whole thing feels like a premeditated attempt at a Sundance sensation, a mix of cast members (and ideas) from Juno and Hamlet 2 spiced up with the now obligatory '80s references.
Director and co-writer Jonathan Glatzer handles his talented cast well, and the movie is dark, droll and sentimental in roughly the correct proportions.
I never know quite what they were saying about heroism and then there are all these unanswered questions.
The film really struggles to find its voice and to find purpose and meaning.
[Director] Glatzer aims to wring laughter out of this desperation but succeeds only in producing a series of contrived characters and situations that make The Breakfast Club look like an unfiltered documentary.
High school drama tale is too edgy for young teens.
O humor melancólico estabelecido pelo estreante Glatzer funciona na maior parte do tempo, sendo beneficiado ainda pela impecável performance de Coogan.
An epic dramedy of teenage angst that is too much drama and not enough comedy for Steve Coogan's good.
The film opens chaotically, perhaps randomly, and it never finds its proper footing. Most movies take their sweet time to reveal incompetence. What Goes Up boldly advertises it within the first 60 seconds.
What Goes Up is an earnest morality tale. It's very uneven, but it also seems sincere.
Has a charismatic performance by Steve Coogan, but that's not nearly enough to save it from drowning from its bland, awkward and lazy screenplay that fails to generate any real laughs or palpable dramatic tension.
A rambling, self-serious and chronically unfocused look at '80s-era small town America and the socio-psychological anguish of disaffected youth.
Such a confused, convoluted, odd piece of cinema that I almost recommend seeing it just because it is so very unusual.
a mess of a movie
While it's often as amateurish as it is assured, Glatzer and writer Robert Lawson want to convey so much that the sheer breadth of the movie means they hit a few of their targets.
Muted and never moving, instead finding no insight while dragging its feet along a variety of forced quirks.
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Movie: ID: 770675907 Title: What Goes Up Release Date: 2009-05-29 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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