A friend of mine once summarised romantic narratives in contemporary young-adult cinema as something along the lines of ‘Here is a list of bands and films that I like, would you like to go out with me?’: a comic insight which (presciently) hits its mark rather directly in discussing It’s Kind Of A Funny Story, a film (based on a 2006 novel by Ned Vizzini) which toils to insinuate an honest cinematic treatment of adolescent depression into a love story between a ‘blank canvas’ sad, young man and a troubled female character written with the box-checking vim of an ephebophile in his mid-30s. By which I do not mean that screenwriters Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are ephebophiles, nor indeed source-material author Ned Vizzini, merely that these individuals have contributed, in their various capacities, to producing a film of great potential but little real worth which ends with Keir Gilchrist and Emma Roberts agreeing to go to a Vampire Weekend concert together. Depressing.
Words: Oisin Murphy
