Review: "Yearbook"

By John Simpson / Go-AMDB.com / November 2001

When I was asked to review "Yearbook", the very high profile movie from Bluebox Limited, I felt very honored. In high school, I was vice president of my local S.A.D.D. chapter my junior year and president in my senior year...so the subject is very near and dear to me. If you don't know the premise of Yearbook by now, it's about the consequences of drinking and driving.

Yearbook is a well executed movie, and I'm sure it will provide a good resource for any S.A.D.D. or M.A.D.D. chapter. It has a good purpose. The only instance where the movie suffers is in the voice over that pops up every so often, including the beginning and ending of the movie. The dialog is spoken in character and delivered well, but quite softly--an easy fix. Of course, I'm not the one to nitpick a movie for easily fixed problems. As for the rest of the movie, it is delivered in an interesting way. I don't know the technical jargon filmmakers use, but the action in Yearbook jumps back in time throughout the movie to show the action through different people's perspectives in order to provide the viewer with more information. The concept worked well in this format.

The acting is passable, and actually better than most movies that are made to inform and pursuade people P.S.A. style. I cared about the characters even in the short time they were on camera.

Bryan Woods and Scott Beck have delivered a very thought-provoking short--which is precisely why they made the movie. I'd like to congratulate them on a job well done. Let's hope this movie gets out to more people so they can get something out of it.