Critic Reviews

Yes, writer-director Michael Johnson cranks the Malick meter up to 11 in this sensitive coming-of-age drama.

In spite of the tatty "coming of age" familiarity, Johnson's vision seems fresh and vibrant.

All The Wilderness may ultimately be hindered by a narrow scope, but within that view, Johnson gets pretty much every detail right.

The images gorgeously embody both the fear and the beauty of James's exploratory experiments with socialization.

All the Wilderness seems tailor-made to play to the actor's strengths — Johnson's script is as lean as Smit-McPhee, both proving adept at doing more with less.

First-time writer/director Michael Johnson falls back on coming-of-age clichés. But overall, his sensitive, moody camerawork and the cast’s strong performances go a long way toward making the familiar feel fresh.

Writer-director Michael Johnson covers a lot of familiarly morbid teen ground in All the Wilderness, a film with touches of “Ordinary People” and a hint of “Harold & Maude.” But touches and a hint aren’t enough to lift this morose movie into anything any of us need to see or hear to deepen our understanding of teen depression, grief and love.

Nothing even remotely wild touches this generic indie movie, which embraces every imaginable cliché in depicting the emotional travails of a sensitive kid in mourning. There isn’t a wolf in it, nor a fox, nor a hog, nor much of anything else. Maybe a chicken.

Mr. Johnson doesn’t give fateful weight to the breadcrumbs that guide James forward. Glancing encounters and faltering conversations unfold lightly and with a visual seductiveness that the cinematographer, Adam Newport-Berra, crescendos in the film’s drifting, transformative middle section.

Ultimately amounts to a visually ambitious tone poem about the none-too-surprising caprices of male adolescence.