Mighty Oak
paramountSean McNamara's Mighty Oak, while a quintessentially harmless Americanised tale of teen genre convention, is an entertaining and touching feature that expresses some profound sentiments – if not clouded in a Disney+ mentality.
Every trope and coming of age genre convention is here in absolute abundance and, while granted it foils the immersion and entertaining factor with each predictable segment following each other, it is in fact writer Matt Allen's screenplay that involves severe and quite profound themes of depression, grief and quite surprisingly regarding the target audience: drug addiction.
It's not that every other element is neither entertaining nor engaging, but the inclusion and exploration of the themes mentioned above are so well implemented, everything else bemoans into slight mediocrity, but by no fault of its own. Janel Parrish as the lead character Gina Jackson does a great job regarding the exploration of said themes – particularly grief and heartbreak – with well-crafted conviction on all fronts, but more often than not her character is relegated to a whole one-note gloom outlook without a fundamental multifaceted approach.
Granted, for a film of this mood and genre, it may not be the place and sound tone to implement something along the lines of recovery. However, with such an issue so relevant in the United States, it feels both disingenuous and slightly problematic just to brush it under the rug. Specifically, when the film goes further to explores secondary characters' issues with addiction.
Further issues regarding tedious and flat supporting characters and the central theme that involves reincarnation that ultimately comes off as contextual exploitation amidst children, does little to cement this as possibly the better feature it should be. That being said, Sean McNamara directs well, and Mighty Oak at its core has useful and engaging sentiments, it is just a shame that it doesn't go that mile further a dig deeper into the problems and personalities present.
