''Terri'' is a 2011 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Azazel Jacobs Azazel Jacobs (born September 27, 1972) is an American film director and screenwriter. He is the son of experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs. His short films include ''Kirk and Kerry'' and ''Message Machine'', and his features include the acclaimed ...

and starring

Jacob Wysocki Jacob Wysocki (born June 20, 1990) is an American actor and comedian. Life and career Wysocki became interested in acting while still in high school. During these years, he also performed with ComedySportz and started to act in school plays. Af ...

Creed Bratton Creed Bratton (born William Charles Schneider, February 8, 1943) is an American actor, singer and musician. A former member of the rock band the Grass Roots, he is best known for playing a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom ''T ...

, and

John C. Reilly John Christopher Reilly (born May 24, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, musician, producer, and writer. After his film debut in ''Casualties of War'' (1989), he gained exposure through his supporting roles in ''Days of Thunder'' (1990), ''Wh ...

. The film is about the friendship that develops between an oversized teen misfit and the garrulous but well-meaning school principal who takes an interest in him. Filming took place in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Premise

Overweight and depressed 15-year-old Terri Thompson starts to slack off in school and wear pajamas, to the chagrin of his teachers. Soon Terri is taken under the wing of unconventional assistant principal Mr. Fitzgerald, who creates a series of Monday-morning counseling sessions for social outcasts at the school.

Cast

as Terri Thompson, a shy, bullied, overweight teenager *

as Uncle James, Terri's sick uncle for whom he is sole caregiver *

as Darryl Fitzgerald, an unconventional but understanding assistant principal who takes Terri under his wing * Bridger Zadina as Chad Markson, a mentally unstable student at Terri's school *

Olivia Crocicchia Olivia Crocicchia (born ) is an American actress from Connecticut. She is known for her role as Katy Gavin, the daughter of Denis Leary's character, on FX's '' Rescue Me'' from 2004 to 2011. She was also a co-lead in the Lifetime television fil ...

as Heather Miles, an outcast girl who may or may not have been the willing victim of a sexual act * Melanie Abramoff as Amy *

Tara Karsian Tara Karsian (born August 5, 1965) is an American actress and writer. She is the daughter of actress Pat Carroll. Life and career Karsian is the daughter of actress Pat Carroll and Lee Karsian, and the sister of casting director Kerry Karsian. Sh ...

as Mrs. Davidson, Terri's homeroom teacher *

Tim Heidecker Timothy Richard Heidecker (; born February 3, 1976) is an American comedian, writer, director, actor, and musician. Along with Eric Wareheim, he is a member of the comedy duo Tim & Eric. He has also appeared in films, including ''Bridesmaids' ...

as Mr. Flemisch, the gym teacher * Mary Anne McGarry as Mrs. Hamish, the office receptionist * Jenna Gavigan as Samantha Goode, the office receptionist * Justin Prentice as Dirty Zach *

Eddie Pepitone Edward David Pepitone (born November 5, 1958) is an American character actor and stand-up comedian. Early life Pepitone was born to a Sicilian father and a Jewish mother in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, and was raised from the age of nine ...

as Joe Hollywood * Nelson Mashita as Robert, the custodian * Josh Perry as Marcus Bloom

Reception

Box office

The film was released in January 2011 at the

2011 Sundance Film Festival The 27th annual Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20, 2011 until January 30, 2011 in Park City, Utah, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah. The festival opened with five screenings, one from each c ...

, and later at the

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

film festivals. ''Terri'' opened in the United States in

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on July 1, 2011 and achieved the second highest per location average for the holiday weekend (second only to '' Transformers: Dark of the Moon'').

Critical response

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 ...

gives the film a score of 87%, with an average rating of 7.1 out of 10, based on 98 reviews from critics. The website's "Critics Consensus" for the film reads, "Embodied with compelling sensitivity by newcomer Jacob Wysocki and supported by a wonderful John C. Reilly, ''Terri'' is an emotionally powerful character study."

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' said, "What lifts ''Terri'' above its peers is not the plight of its protagonist or the film's sympathy for him, but rather the care and craft that the director, Azazel Jacobs, has brought to fairly conventional material" and Betsy Sharkey of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' called it, "...impossible not to love".

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film 4 stars out of 4.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Terri 2011 films 2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 2010s teen comedy-drama films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American teen comedy-drama films Films shot in Los Angeles American independent films Films with screenplays by Patrick deWitt 2011 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films