Norman | Film review

Disillusioned high-school student Norman Long (Cougar Town’s Dan Byrd) has a lot more to be gloomy about than his peers. Still traumatized by the death of his mother in a brutal car accident a year earlier, he now assumes the role of caretaker for his dying father (Richard Jenkins). Rather than share his feelings with his best friend, Norman claims, in a moment of weakness, that his father’s diagnosis of terminal stomach cancer is his own. The teenage rumor mill quickly spreads the news, making the former outcast instantly popular. The film’s dark sense of humor keeps it from descending into misery, and Byrd makes Norman sympathetic, finding a humanity in the character’s darkest deeds and moods.