Dare (2009)
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 14
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 3
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 45,793
My Rating
Movie Info
In high school, what kind of person did you dare to be: risk-taking and lustful, melancholy and confused or simply safe and over-achieving? "Dare" follows three very different teenagers through the last semester of high school. There are Alexa, the overachieving good girl who longs to break out of her shell; Ben, the melancholy outsider confused about his sexuality; and Johnny, the rich kid who has everything, including good looks, but hides behind his bad boy persona. This unlikely trio fall
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Cast
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Emmy Rossum
Alexa Walker -
Zach Gilford
Johnny Drake -
Ashley Springer
Ben Berger -
Ana Gasteyer
Ruth Berger -
Alan Cumming
Grant Matson -
Sandra Bernhard
Dr. Serena Mohr -
Rooney Mara
Courtney -
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All Critics (14) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (5)
Brind's screenplay is pregnant with fascinating questions of identity and social anxiety. And Salky knows how to create a mood.
Top CriticThe film lacks the comedic charm of American Pie, but with its dark, hyper-sexualization of teens, it offers an engrossing if not soap opera-esque tale of self-discovery.
Dare feels a bit unfinished, at once overreaching and underrealized. But there is a lot of intelligence, and considerable daring, in the basic conceit.
Dare is a high school coming-of-age film that dares to push the envelope. It doesn't always succeed, but that's not for lack of trying.
The actors, all great camera subjects, help give director Adam Salky's overly pat movie a trace of confessional conviction.
Adam Salky's high-school soap offers a virtual Spumoni of caricatured adolescent hand-wringing. When subtlety equals a drama-class performance of A Streetcar Named Desire's rape scene, expect a bumpy ride.
Unlike so many films that paint a rosy picture of adolescence for adults with fuzzy memories, Dare has the courage of its convictions.
Quite good in brief stretches but not distinguishable enough overall, freshman director Adam Salky's picture evinces the coming of age confusion he's chronicling.
Director Adam Salky nails down the notion that when your fantasies come true, sometimes they are awkward and unsatisfying. There's a reason they didn't seem realistic.
Dare is substandard fare by all accounts, plucking its characters from past (and better) teen-angst films.
(The film) failed to ring true for me...Too many of the sexual situations struck me as contrived.
While not all the filmmakers' gambits work, this low-budget comedy is thematically daring and increasingly engrossing as it rolls along.
Adam Salky's entry into the coming of age genre ... tells the age-old story with a few interesting wrinkles.
Audience Reviews for Dare
Super Reviewer
Director: Adam Salky
Summary: In their final semester before graduation from an affluent suburban high school, good girl Alexa (Emmy Rossum), outcast Ben (Ashley Springer) and bad boy Johnny (Zach Gilford) decide to shed their youthful inhibitions and take some very grown-up risks.
My Thoughts: "Although the story is interesting, the story doesn't leave you feeling like it's finished. I found Johnny Drake's character to be the much more interesting one of the three. He seems to be having some major issues and I'd liked to have known more of his story. I love Zach Gilford. I first saw him on 'Friday Night Lights'. He is a great actor and was great in the role of Johnny Drake. I feel like Alexa and Ben use Johnny to find out who they are. He is more of an experiment for them then a human being. When he becomes vulnerable in front of them, it seems it humanized him and they didn't know how to handle it. He was no longer seen as an object for their own needs anymore. It was interesting, and a different kind of teen angst film I thought I was in for. The film is sad, twisted, and unique considering it's not your average teen flick. Worth the watch."
Super Reviewer
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