''Daydream Nation'' is a 2010 Canadian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed b
Michael Goldbach
It features

Kat Dennings Katherine Victoria Litwack (born June 13, 1986), known professionally as Kat Dennings, is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Max Black in the CBS sitcom '' 2 Broke Girls'' (2011–2017) and as Darcy Lewis in the Marvel ...

Reece Thompson Reece Daniel Thompson (born 22 November 1988) is a Canadian actor. Thompson started his acting career as a child actor by voice acting in several animated television series and minor roles on television shows before transitioning to films. His ...

, and

Josh Lucas Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer (born June 20, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in various films, including '' American Psycho'' (2000), '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), '' The Deep End'' (2001), '' A Beautiful Mind'' (20 ...

. The film premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

on September 10, 2010.

Plot

Seventeen-year-old Caroline Wexler (

) and her father move from a large city to a small town where an industrial fire burns endlessly and many of the students in her new high school seem to be permanently stoned. One of Caroline's classmates, Thurston Goldberg (

), quickly falls for her after they first meet at a party. Caroline is attracted to her high school English teacher Mr. Anderson (

) and the two begin to have sex. On Halloween, Thurston and his best friends Paul (

Landon Liboiron Landon Liboiron (born March 10, 1991) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Declan Coyne in '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'' and his lead role as Peter Rumancek in Netflix's original series ''Hemlock Grove'' (2013–15). Early life ...

), Charles (

Jesse Reid Jesse Reid is a boxer and Hall of Fame trainer. His former students include world champions Roger Mayweather, Lamon Brewster, Johnny Tapia, Orlando Canizales, Reggie Johnson and Bruce Curry. He has trained 23 World Champions and developed over ...

) and Craig (

Calum Worthy Calum Worthy (born January 28, 1991) is a Canadian actor, writer, and producer, known for his roles as Dez on the Disney Channel series '' Austin & Ally'', Alex Trimboli in the Netflix series ''American Vandal'', Nicholas Godejohn in the Hulu ser ...

) spend most of the day getting stoned and inhaling cleaning products which later causes Craig to have a violent

seizure An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...

during health class. Afterwards, Mr. Anderson cancels his plans with Caroline in order to help the health teacher Ms. Budge (

Rachel Blanchard Rachel Blanchard (born 19 March 1976) is a Canadian actress.Rachel Blanchard's bio
at ...

). Mr. Anderson tells Caroline that they should probably go out with other people to avoid looking suspicious, and blows Caroline off on the phone. Feeling upset, Caroline goes out with Thurston where they end up having sex in her car. He admits to her that he was a

virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

until that night. The next day, Mr. Anderson apologizes to her, but says that their relationship must be as discreet. They make up and Caroline spends the night after reading Mr. Anderson's draft of his new novel. Thurston continues to try to pursue Caroline, coming to her home with cupcakes. After he is rejected at the door by Caroline's father (

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), Thurston's mother (

Andie MacDowell Rosalie Anderson MacDowell (born April 21, 1958) is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell's known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. MacDowell has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman ...

) intercedes on his behalf, which leads to her and Caroline's father sharing intimate moments over drinks. Caroline eventually realizes that Mr. Anderson is deeply dysfunctional, and breaks off the relationship in favor of Thurston. In return, Mr. Anderson does everything to sabotage the budding romance, and Caroline's life descends into chaos. Meanwhile, the local TV station, KCRR reports that there is a serial killer who killed a high school cheerleader. As Caroline and Thurston's relationship develops, Mr. Anderson becomes even more unstable. He tells Thurston that he was just a cover, and on a rampage, Thurston breaks up with Caroline. Caroline leaves and goes to confront Mr. Anderson, who is on the verge of a mental breakdown. After Caroline leaves, he tries to commit suicide but shoots himself in the leg instead. Caroline goes to try to find Thurston and calls him while driving, leaving a message telling him to stay at the Christmas party where she will go to find him and that she loves him. In the meantime, Thurston goes to the Christmas party and almost has sex with another girl, Jenny (

Katie Boland Katie Boland (born 1987 or 1988) is a Canadian actress, writer, director, and producer. She began her career as a child actress in film and television and has since branched out into adult roles, in addition to writing, directing, and producing ...

) who is obsessed with him. Caroline inadvertently crashes her car into the serial killer, who dies from his injuries. She is thought to be a hero and gets back together with Thurston. Ms. Budge shows up at Mr. Anderson's home to tell him the serial killer is dead and takes him to the hospital to treat his injured leg.

Cast

Production

Principal photography began in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

on January 9, 2010.

Reception

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Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 68% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 6.03/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 57 out of 100, based on eight critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Daydream Nation 2010 films 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010s high school films 2010s teen drama films Canadian coming-of-age drama films Canadian teen drama films English-language Canadian films Films about scandalous teacher–student relationships Films set in Canada Films shot in Vancouver Canadian films about cannabis 2010 directorial debut films 2010 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films