Heathers meets Groundhog Day in Before I Fall

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      Starring Zoey Deutch. Rating unavailable

      Heathers meets Groundhog Day in this stylishly shot teen drama, adapted from Lauren Oliver’s speculative young-adult novel. The film’s main draw is its star turn by up-and-comer Zoey Deutch, of Beautiful Creatures and Everybody Wants Some!!. The fine-featured youngster plays Samantha Kingston (a classic YA name), whose last day of high school also turns out to be, well, maybe, kind of her last day on Earth.

      Sam lives in a super-deluxe home in an unnamed mountain town (actually Squamish, B.C.). She’s rude to her cute little sister (Erica Tremblay, sister of Jacob) and to her parents (Jennifer Beals and Nick Lea, seen briefly), and of course bitchy to her three best friends, led by a head Heather called Lindsay (Halston Sage).

      The gals are razzing Sam about the possibility of losing her virginity that night. From what we see of her guyfriend (Kian Lawley), this already looks like a life-altering mistake. But they’re headed for an even more crucial reckoning. A charmingly goofy schoolmate (Logan Miller) with a longstanding crush on Sam invites her to a hey-my-mom’s-out-of-town party. When she gets to his mansion, it’s a raging kegger that must have been planned weeks in advance.

      Everyone’s there, including the angry, artsy girl (Elena Kampouris) our rat pack has picked on for years. Things don’t go well, they leave early, and let’s just say that ol’ Lindsay is one lousy driver.

      Even so, Sam wakes up the next morning as if nothing happened. Nothing has, and she’s allowed to relive that weird day again and again, with the chance to reexamine her own choices. This is where things get somewhat interesting, mainly as a vehicle for Deutch to show off her range of emotions, and wardrobe options.

      Director Ry Russo-Young and screenwriter Maria Maggenti are far more interested in surface appearances than substance. Almost everyone here seems obscenely wealthy, but that’s not on the menu for self-examination. No one displays any interests or ambitions outside of the social pecking order, so there’s no moral grounding to Sam’s quest to “get it right” on repetition.

      And it’s impossible to know what young people are supposed to take away from the thudlike ending, which suggests that the virtues of Christian martyrdom are right up there with being nicer to your mom.

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