'November Criminals' Is Disappointingly Boring

Based on the novel The November Criminals by Sam Munson, November Criminals is a crime drama film centering on Addison Schacht (Ansel Elgort), a high school senior aspiring to get into University of Chicago and who has just started going out with schoolmate Phoebe (Chloe Grace Moretz).  One day, a friend of his working at a coffee shop is murdered, just moments after he and Phoebe got their coffee and conversed with him.  Having recently lost his mother, Addison is heavily affected by another unexpected death of a close person in his life.  Frustrated that the police and media are dismissing it as a case of gang violence, he decides to investigate on his own.

I got interested on this movie because I enjoy stories about young amateur sleuths.  It’s a result of growing up on Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.  And based on how it’s presented in the trailer and poster – or, rather, my assumptions from its presentation – I thought that this film was going to be a decent mystery-solving adventure in which Ansel Elgort and Chloe Grace Moretz’s characters will have the same kind of dynamic that Bughead or Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn had.

November Criminals starts out promising enough.  Nothing forceful.  Just an ample amount of interesting elements that make it seems a fantastic plot for a mystery drama is being set up.  Moreover, Elgort and Moretz are talented young actors (especially Elgort who was awesome in Baby Driver), and they insert charisma into their characters.  Hence, I was into it during its first third.

But afterwards, the storytelling falters and falters, getting increasingly dull and difficult to watch.  The effect of Elgort and Moretz’s charms gradually fade, unable to hide the fact that the characters lack substantial realization and the narrative isn’t going somewhere worthwhile.  When it gets to the final revelation, the only thing it can muster is a whimper.

What a bummer.  What a bore.