Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life Blu-ray Movie Review

Sketch book of a wimpy kid.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 2, 2017

A propos of nothing other than some passing curiosity, when did junior high become middle school in the United States, or have there always been areas that referred to the institution between elementary school and high school as middle school? In both Salt Lake City and Seattle where I grew up, it was always called junior high, though the junior high I attended in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue evidently now calls itself a middle school. In what might be thought of as the flip side to Shakespeare’s immortal line from Romeo and Juliet about a certain flower smelling the same (sweet) way no matter what you end up calling it, the perilous grades of either 6-8, 6-9 or 7-9 (I've seen all three in various regions, but it was 7-9 where I attended junior high) would probably be as horrifying for many kids even if you called the building Wonderland. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life’s title doesn’t just circumscribe the general tenor of this fitfully engaging film, it probably also provides an apt general summary for how many felt about their travails during their adolescence.

Rafe Khatchadorian (Griffin Gluck) seems like a nice enough kid, one with more than a bit of a penchant for drawing, but one who has an initially undisclosed issue which is leading to some behavior problems. His history at school hasn’t exactly been stellar, and one salient piece of evidence in that regard is the fact that he’s been forced to transfer to Hills Village Middle School, perhaps appropriately in the middle of a school year. The film’s circumspection about what may be underlying the inarguably provocative and at times downright near delinquent behavior on the part of Rafe relies on a plot conceit that won’t be spoiled here, but which tends to push this film into territory that its whimsical takedown of The Man (and/or the Principal, as the case may be) may not jibe especially well with.

The films tendency to exploit visual bells and whistles is on display from the get go, with Rafe’s drawings coming to life to help keep him company in the perhaps anxiety prone hours before he has to try matriculating to yet another “new” school. Rafe at least has the unquestioned support of his sous chef mother (Lauren Graham), though he has to suffer the slings and arrows of a typically hyperarticulate and kind of snarky little sister, Georgia (Alexa Nisenson). Rafe has an early and awkward interchange with his new school’s martinet principal Ken Dwight (Andy Daly), but is relieved to see his longtime friend Leo (Thomas Barbusca) has ended up at Hills Village as well, and is even less inclined than Rafe himself to take Dwight’s endless rules about proper school decorum seriously.

When Dwight destroys Rafe cherished sketch book, all bets are off, and with a little encouragement from Leo, Rafe decides to break Dwight’s endless list of rules one by one, checking them off as he goes. He’s ultimately helped by a girl named Jeanne Galletta (Isabela Moner) even as he has to weather some nascent bullying from some other kids in his remedial class, not to mention increased animosity from Dwight himself, reeling not just from his lack of control but due to a supposedly nefarious attempt to skew test rankings. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life is already stuffed to the gills with subplots, but there’s even more in store when it turns out Rafe and Georgia may have a new stepdad in the offing, a boor named Carl (Rob Riggle) whom the kids see for the pretentious oaf he is, but who has somehow managed to charm the kids’ mom.

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life’s fairly clunky screenplay simply can’t knit the many disparate elements of this tale together very artfully, and the film devolves into a series of vignettes where Dwight’s tenuous grasp on power is repeatedly humiliated. The fact that the film’s animated interstitials often play more realistically than the supposed “real life” scenes is perhaps the most salient clue as to the tonal oddities of this film. There seems to be an attempt to ground some of the proceedings in verisimilitude, but when you have one prank of Rafe’s involving post it notes being more or less physically impossible to accomplish, the film simply tips over into silliness, something that in turn doesn’t mesh very well with what is supposedly a devastating denouement at around the hour mark.

Performances are generally agreeable, if often hyperbolic, especially on the part of Daly and Retta, playing Dwight’s equally nasty vice principal. The film earns some merit for a bright and colorful visual aesthetic, but it’s window dressing for a kind of odd mishmash of whimsy and pathos, one which never gels into a cohesive entertainment.

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. I haven't been able to track down any authoritative data on this shoot, but cinematographer Julio Macat's last several films have been digitally shot with Arri Alexa cameras, and this production certainly has the glossy and generally nicely detailed ambience of that technology. There's very little if any overt color grading on display, and as a result the palette looks natural and quite fresh, especially in outdoor scenes, and detail levels are generally very good, at least in the (many) brighter lit moments. As can be seen from some of the accompanying screenshots, the film exploits a number of visual bells and whistles, including animated interstitials (see screenshot 5) and text superimpositions (see screenshot 11). There are also occasional uses of what appear to be fisheye and similar techniques, though there are a couple of odd moments where things seem weirdly squeezed with resolution not at the level of the rest of the presentation (see screenshot 19). There are no problems with image instability and no issues with compression anomalies.

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While not shot through and through with source cues, there are enough in Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track to provide good, consistent immersion, an aspect that is also supported by some of the noisier moments in the middle school itself, where there's been good attention paid to spatial differentiation between foreground conversation and the general hubbub of the background crowds. Quieter scenes (and there are a surprising number of them for an often raucous outing like this one) obviously don't offer much in the way of surround activity, but feature excellent fidelity nonetheless.

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• That Middle School Life (1080p; 10:57) has quite a bit of behind the scenes footage that fans may find enjoyable.


• Middle School = The Worst / Making Movies = The Best (1080p; 5:28) is basically more of the same (including snippets of identical material).


• The Wedgie Wheel (1080p; 2:33) offers explanations of various kinds of wedgies.


• YOLO: Behind Operation Rafe (1080p; 6:55) reviews some of the film's shenanigans.


• Gag Reel (1080p; 5:22)


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 3:21)

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you pay attention to each and every character introduction in this film, you may get a brief but telling visual clue as to what's going on with one of them, something that plays into what is this film's most intriguing but also seemingly ill fitting gambit. That conceit, which has been danced around in this review as much as I'm able to, will no doubt be touching for some, but for others will come off as cloying and overly manipulative. Unfortunately it's just one of many ill fitting elements in a film that wants to have fun with taking down a tyrant, but doesn't seem to know exactly how to go about doing it, cinematically speaking. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.