Half-new at most, this "Running With Scissors"–type tale of a precocious, effeminate teen who gets hot for teacher while prepping for a life in the arts isn't evidently autobiographical. Neither is it funny--or poignant or insightful or remotely worth one's time.
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Whole New Thing comes unglued toward the end, spiraling into melodrama without ever escaping its whiny, indie-rock soundtrack.
"Thing" suffers the familiar curse of Canadian seriocomedy -- just nice enough in content and stylistically like a telepic.
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Slight Canadian coming-of-age drama.
Interestingly, the real heart of the film is in the finely drawn adult characters.
Like a Canadian "Six Feet Under," the indie dramedy Whole New Thing mixes characters (teen and adult, gay and straight, married and single) who seem both completely plausible and capable of anything.
Develops its story slowly and carefully, nearly always opting for the plausible over the sensational.
The one lesson learned from watching this film is that Canadians can make movies just as badly as anyone else.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
This movie is a more conventional, but also more believable, exploration of the potential cost of thumbing your nose at society.