My Life as a Zucchini seems so smoothly and effortlessly down-to-earth. There is so much tenderness and compassion depicted in this film. This is the most sincere and authentic portrayal of the destruction that can come within childhood—presenting the audience to complex adult issues through a child's perspective and the dilemmas that come attached to it. The characters experience the heavy difficulties of abandonment, death, abuse, drug addiction, and such.

What is so amazing about this film is that it's retained PG-13 and manages to maturely present the children (who are mature to an extent to deal with the themes and complexities of the film) to the reality of life's brutality, even though it manages to contain some very raw and cold content.

Personally, I loved the style of this film so much—it is so beautifully magical. I was literally saddened over lumps of clay with the reliability of the character's tragic and heartbreaking home backgrounds. 4.5!