By now you may have heard of ‘Struck by Lightning,’ one of the more popular films premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Famous for starring and being written by Glee’s Chris Colfer, as well as featuring an all-star cast of Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland, Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks, Allison Janney, and veteran actress Polly Bergen.

The film tells the story of Carson (Colfer), who after being struck and killed by lightning, recounts the way he blackmailed his fellow classmates into contributing to his literary magazine. That’s the short and sweet version, but thankfully Colfer has created a much more complex story. He took what could have been a typical teen comedy and put a different spin on it. It’s dark, often cruel at times, but that’s how life really is.

While the film centered on mostly Carson’s journey, for me this film was about a young boy with huge dreams for the future and an older woman stuck in the past. Said older woman being Allison Janney who portrays Carson’s mother. I wouldn’t be surprised if she received awards recognition later this year, she absolutely killed it in this role. She took an extremely unlikable character and turned her into a real person that you actually cared for. I loved this character and so desperately wanted her to find happiness.

So how was Colfer in his first non-Glee role? Pretty much the same as he always is, fantastic. Whether you enjoy ‘Glee’ or not – I tend to find the show badly written and cheesy – Colfer is a phenomenal actor that lights up the screen whenever he is present, quite like lightning (pardon my pun). Not only was this character a spit-fire and extremely witty, what I loved so much about Carson was that he had no love interest in this film. Almost all teen flicks feel the need to have a romantic subplot for the lead character but that was never even explored which I really appreciated, not everybody needs to fall in love in high school!

My one qualm about the film? Carson’s classmates amount to nothing more than cliché stereotypes. Don’t get me wrong, the characters were enjoyable and funny (particularly Sarah Hyland as cheerleader Claire Matthews and Roberto Aguire as the womanizing foreigner), but I wish we could have gotten more out of them! With the exception of the hilarious Rebel Wilson as Carson’s strange best friend, by the film’s end the rest of his classmates were still generally the same characters when we first met them therefore not that likable. I wish there could’ve been more growth with them, but that’s not what this film set out to do and I suppose it’s a good thing because it was more realistic in that sense. I don’t know about you but in my high school the bitchy cheerleader and dumb jock never broke out of their stereotypes either.

‘Struck by Lightning’ manages to be inspiring in two ways, first with the character of Carson who stands up for what he believes in and stops at nothing to get what he wants, and the second is the story behind the film, Chris Colfer wrote this imaginative screenplay at the ripe age of 16 and here it is on the big screen with this tremendous cast. If that doesn’t inspire you to chase your youthful dreams I don’t know what will!

SEE IT.

Here is a list of upcoming screenings of ‘Struck by Lightning’

Mon 4/23 9:30pm SVA Theater 1 Silas

Fri 4/27 5:30pm SVA Theater 2 Beatrice

Sun 4/29 6:00pm SVA Theater 1 Silas

Ticket Information: http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets/Box_Office_Information.html