All I Want

This film is a more-sensitive-than-thou "coming of age" story about an unassertive, intelligent seventeen year old virgin who drops out of his freshman year of college to write The Great American Novel. He's not really ready to write yet because he hasn't had any life experience. He needs to meet colorful, kooky characters. Therefore he takes an apartment in a colorful, kooky building and proceeds to start relating to his neighbors. One of them is Franka, playing a grouchy photographer. Another of his neighbors is a cowboy who teaches ol' Frodo how to shoot a handgun. You haven't lived until you see Elijah Wood wearing a cowboy hat and fanning a revolver.

Miss Moore is generally irritating, and the lovers' chemistry between Potente and Wood is strange. Franka is about 30 years old, and could easily pass for 40. Wood was 21, but had no problem passing for 17, the age of the character in this film. Franka is also about a foot taller than the li'l feller. (In theory, she is 5' 8 1/2" and Wood is 5'6", but something seems wrong with those numbers when you see them together.) When the cast of the Graduate changes again, they would make a perfect Benjamin and Mrs Robinson.

DVD info from Amazon

widescreen anamorphic

I'm guessing that they changed the name of the film from Try Seventeen since Franka's character was actually committing a major felony (statutory rape) by having sex with a seventeen year old boy, and the distributors probably thought it might be wise to draw attention away from that.

The Critics Vote

filmcritic.com 2/5

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.8/10, which seems a hair too high.

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this is a C-.