Rocket Science

I enjoyed the characters and the way that the director respected them enough to infuse them with quirk and qualities that ground them in familiarity. The situations were outside my realm of experience, but the feelings of awkward youth are all too familiar and seem to keep rolling into adulthood. And that's why these coming of age tales will keep me coming back for more. Rocket Science has a winning protagonist constantly in over his head. It makes for a good mix of comedy and just the right amount of angst. It works. Writer/director Jeffry Blitz has an ear for fast talking teens on the other end of the teen spectrum from Juno. And more importantly, he has the memory of one who has had circles talked around them.

****

Fierce People

This is a disappointing film not so much because I had high hopes, but because I spent two hours of my life on it.

A shallow coming of age movie pretending to have emotion weight and truths loses track of itself after it jumps into the world of these "fierce creatures". Character motivations are unclear and forced in a way that made me think maybe I had missed entire scenes that could explain actions or people that were never satisfyingly explained. People behave in ways that further plot rather than moving from a character's center or voice. The film hinges on a twist that is meant to surprise and enrage and change us, but in truth we always suspect that it was so even though we never believe the reason given for it being so.

The only highlight comes from the lead - Anton Yelchin. He seems to be a young actor of the moment and delivers a performance certainly deserving of a better film.

**

The Perfect Score

Ah, the SATs. How can a group of teens with different dreams for the future band together to steal the answers and beat the system? Humorlessly.

I caught this movie Friday night on TBS. I should have gone to bed. Somehow I excuse myself from putting the movies I watch on late nights on the weekend through the same standard set I employ during the week. I'll sit through much worse films at 2 am on a Saturday morning than I would at 7:15 pm on Friday night. And I don't know why. It's almost always a mistake.

One such mistake was watching The Perfect Score. It had a lot going for it. Scarlett Johanson (who has been good in movies such as Lost in Translation, Ghost World, and Match Point), Erika Christensen (who was good in Traffic), and Chris Evans (who surprised me with solid work in Sunshine) all have major roles. Well, okay. That's pretty much all it had going for it.

The scheme is lame and would never work, not even in my wildest dreams. The cast of misfits and popular kids never gel as a acting team. In fact, three of the performers should be ashamed of their performances in the film. Bryan Greenburg, Darius Miles (who, granted, is not a professional actor), and Leonardo Nam are awful. Everyone else is bad, but Greenburg, Miles, and Nam are truly awful. Nam in particular is all bravado and hi-yucks as the stoner of the crew. He sets the tone for the movie. Any easy joke available will be made. The movie is as smart as a stoner in the middle of a long day of bong-induced pleasure.

Even though the movie hints at the desire to look at the complexity of those high school-types that we know all too well, it fails. Everyone ends up being the sum of what we already know about them. Even as the characters change near the end (which they do all at the same time oddly enough), they still remain the products of the writers' memories of high school and certainly movies set in high school (they reference The Breakfast Club). But rather than exploring teenagers through in-depth conversation as in TBC (except maybe a few on rooftops or in the woods), we learn of these students' "complexities" through this hair-brained scheme.

Ah, the scheme. Even though the writers' put forth a lot of effort into making the heist of the answers exciting with close calls, alarms, and setbacks, I was bored. When they decide to steal the questions and complete the test as a team after a setback, I cringed. They'll beat the system by taking the test? Yahoo!

And you know some of these teens have to hook up! It wouldn't be a teen movie if nobody kissed or tightly embraced each other. Even The Breakfast Club fall into that mold.

Do they take their team answers and "cheat" on the test? Do they realize their dreams? Does anyone care? Not me.

P.S. - this movie is the perfect example of the misuse of voice over...

*1/2

Some Kind of Wonderful

My biggest complaint with Some Kind of Wonderful is that it's really just Pretty in Pink with a change in genders and ending. The rest is basically the same. I don't really want to argue with the film's fans, but the comparison is easily made. A misfit with good grades and growing pains (Ringwald in PIP, Eric Stoltz in SKOW) falls for a popular kid (Andrew McCarthy in PIP, Lea Thompson in SKOW) with popular friends that don't approve. All the while, the misfit's best friend (Jon Cryer in PIP, Mary Stuart Masterson in SKOW), also a misfit, is in love with them. The misfit ends up with one of them, but the end result flips from one film to the other.

The difference is I didn't care about the characters nearly as much as I did in PIP. As much as I like Stoltz, I couldn't root for him as much as I should have. I didn't care who he ended up with. I didn't care that he told his dad that “I don't want your life” (go Varsity Blues). He seemed nice enough, but the whole “stick up for yourself” thing never reached a satisfying end. It was just a mess. Lesson: to stick up for yourself, get your friends to threaten your enemies.

Pluses: Elias Koteas as a punk high schooler. He's funny. Candace Cameron (D.J. Tanner herself) as Stoltz's precocious little sister. She's funny.

**1/2

Pretty in Pink

Pretty in Pink is good John Hughes, not grand John Hughes like the Breakfast Club. But good is...well, good. Part of the reason I like Hughes is he writes complicated teenagers. Complicated “villains”...not so much. James Spader delivers a one-note performance as the popular, rich jerk. But he does it so well, I can't really complain.

Molly Ringwald is so good in Hughes movies that I wonder how she fell so far off the map. She's no Meryl Streep, to be sure, but she always played her roles well in her Hughes films. My guess is her talent didn't mature enough to play adult roles. That and adults probably weren't willing to see her in “their” movies.

The adoring weird friend is a common character in Hughes' world, and Jon Cryer delivers a fine performance as Ducky.

I also liked Harry Dean Stanton as Ringwald's dad. The guy's a pro, never playing down to genre that usually didn't let the adult performers shine.

As a writer, Hughes always made a real effort to show how teenagers can be smart, complicated people who we can all relate to. He showed complexity in social classes that often gets glossed over for stereotypes. The guy was good. I miss him. The rumor was that he wrote Maid in Manhattan. If so, I cry. But the guy needs to jump back in and do the teenager thing. Because even if the 80s soundtracks and vocabulary of its main characters must be changed, the issues are still there. And teenage movies can be good again.

My major complaint: The end feels incredibly rushed. All the problems seem to fix themselves in one big whirlwind. The film had earned a better constructed ending.

***1/2

Brick

Brick was one of my highest anticipated films of the year. It's trailer was dynamite, a gasoline soaked rag waiting for a match. And the movie's pretty good, too. I guess the question with this film is whether its viewers will be able to suspend disbelief long enough to really enjoy the noir dialogue pouring out of high schooler's mouths. I was able to. Once I did, I had a grand time. The twisty mystery is pretty confusing, to the point where I'm not sure the explanations offered actually satisfy my curiosities. But it's a highly sylized, well made film with good performances and creative cinematography and direction. Joseph Gordon Levitt isn't the most talented actor of his generation, but darnit if he's not the most charismatic.

***1/2