First: It's one of those ensemble teen movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High or American Pie, but updated for modern times with smartphones and so on. Oh and also with a bit more focus on the parents of the kids as well.
Second: It's a remake of all those classic scare movies like Reefer Madness or Perversion for Profit, but improbably about the internet. The internet allows married couples to cheat, makes a teenage girl anorexic AND pregnant, and (most shocking of all) makes a star running back quit the high school football team!
Third: It's actually kind of a mix of the two, because the problems in this movie are the problems that teens and parents always have in these movies. Parents are cheating on each other, A kid gets disillusioned with high school football. A young woman as sex with a young man who turns out to be a huge douche. A girl and boy fall in love despite the girl's mother being really controlling and intrusive. These are pretty universal themes in these kinds of movies, and I can't quite tell if the point of the movie is that the internet makes these problems different, or if it's the same stuff in a different way.
Generally though, I liked:
-Emma Thompson as a snarky omniscient narrator,
-The relationship between Ansel Elgort and Kaitlyn Dever which was sweet in the "let's be sad loners together" way
-Adam Sandler giving one of those great quiet and subdued performances he does once every five years or so
This is an OK movie, but if you're interested you might want to wait until it comes to video or something.
P.S. As a fan of the show Alias back in the day I'm increasingly bummed out that all the roles I see Jennifer Garner in these days is as the Mom. But that's a personal agenda, never mind!
P.P.S. There's a key plot point that is completely nonsensical about how a certain video game works in this movie. As a video gamer this offends me greatly (not actually).
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