Franklie I would love to refer this film, but I can't because of the gunge. The bad outweighs the good. Arg.The actors are all spot-on and fabulous and fun. Loved seeing Ben Kingsley and James Le Gros. And we liked meeting Katie Chang.The scenery is absolutely beautiful.The story is important and heart-wrenching and motivating and quick-witted.But the vocabulary and the references are mundane, unimaginative, low-brow, and just plain "ew". They weigh the whole thing down like oil on a duck. Ironically, this crude language is making our clever and thoughtful words evermore extinct and narrowing our language and our minds. Sad.

Roland E. Zwick "A Birder's Guide to Everything" is an unassuming little charmer about a quartet of teenaged ornithologists who go in pursuit of a duck long believed to be extinct by experts in such matters. But, as the title itself suggests, "birding" is about a whole lot more than just seeking out and categorizing rare birds; it's about friendship, camaraderie, first love, learning to let go and growing up.Kodi Smit-McPhee plays David Portnoy, a high school boy who's having trouble coming to terms with the death of his beloved mother a year-and- a-half ago, a renowned ornithologist herself who instilled an intense love for birds in her son that he carries with him to this very day. His grieving process is not being helped by the fact that his father (James Le Gros) is slated to marry the nurse (Daniela Lavender) who took care of his mother in her dying days. David rebels in the only way a non-troublemaking, bird-obsessed boy really can - by piling into a "borrowed" car with his equally bird-obsessed buddies and going off through the woods of Upstate New York to prove the world wrong about that aforementioned duck.Written by Luke Matheny and Rob Meyer and directed by Meyer, "A Birder's Guide to Everything" is filled with humor, warmth, and winning performances by Alex Wolff and Michael Chen as David's lifelong pals, as well as Katie Chang as the initially skeptical but sufficiently open- minded fellow student who joins the boys in their quest. Ben Kingley also gets in on the fun as a professional ornithologist who worked with David's mother and has a few words of wisdom to impart to the mourning lad on the eve of his dad's nuptials.Along with some dazzling scenery, "A Birder's Guide to Everything" manages to drive home a few basic truths - like it really is okay to march to the beat of your own drum - with its deceptively simple tale of a boy and his birds.

joanbike I wasn't sure what to expect from this film, but I really enjoyed it. I'm not a birder, but thought the bird photography was beautiful. The story had everything you could want. The well-developed characters were very likable. A Birder's Guide to Everything is a movie for everyone. It was entertaining, but had lots of depth. At first, I thought the film was going to be very predictable. I was pleasantly surprised at the twists and turns that followed. The audience in the theater where I saw the movie reacted to events in the film, and applauded at the end. I hope this film gets lots of notice! I think Luke Matheny has a bright future ahead of him.

Jena Howie Saw this film at Tribeca and I LOVED it! It's one of those movies anyone can watch and get something out of. It made me laugh, cry, and self-reflect. For a film to do all of those things - that's powerful. I enjoyed the film for its humor, originality, and emotional dimension. When you are a kid and tragedy strikes it's hard to bounce back and feel sturdy in your surroundings - this film takes you back to that uneasiness and shows a view of life through the eyes of a motley crew of teenagers, figuring out their role in a series of eye-opening events on a quest for more than just an extinct duck. The characters are funny, well developed, and real. The coming of age concept is something I think everyone can relate to in some way or another. This film can remind of us that sometimes life itself is a quest with many surprises along the way and that we are never too old for an adventure. The fact that the film was co-written says a lot about the talent and caliber of the writers. I think the collaboration was a huge contribution to the realness of the characters and is what helps this film appeal to a variety of audiences. Props, Rob and Luke!