An edgy tale of accidental goodness, director Oran Zegman's "Honor Society" is a surprisingly compelling high school caper conceived with boyish wit, poise, and a genuinely out-of-left-field turn. Written by veteran TV writer David A. Goodman, its teenage lead looks like a cross between Tracy Flick from "Election" and Cher Horowitz from "Clueless." Possessing the solipsism of the former and the selfish wit of the latter, Honor spends her days plotting her strategy to become a Harvard student next semester.
Honor has carefully forged this plan over the past four years. In her mind, Harvard is the only school that can guarantee her a one-way exit from a dead end. It's not that her middle-class life sucks or that her working parents aren't loving; she is well aware of the limited options her small town can provide, should she return home with a lackluster education.
Director: Oran Zegman
Writer: David A. Goodman
Stars: Angourie Rice, Gaten Matarazzo, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
This achiever seems to have it all on her resume: she's an valedictorian with straight A's, a philanthropist who volunteers at the local food bank, an entrepreneur, and an athlete who founded a karate club. The only thing she lacks from her? The much-coveted letter of recommendation from her school counselor, Mr. Calvin, played by "Superbad's" hilarious Christopher Mintz-Plasse, now a slimy authority figure geeking out the halls of another high school .
Always several steps ahead of everyone else, Honor already knows that Mr. Calvin is a creep who has an unduly crush on her. Unfortunately, he also has the right Ivy League connections that could prove useful. However, before she can manipulate this combination to her advantage, Honor learns that three students are vying with her for her favor: shy brainiac Michael, reclusive aspiring playwright Kennedy (Amy Keum) and heartthrob jock Travis, who is famous for dating the prettiest girl in school. .
Honor finds it easy to sabotage the latter two. As a master of intrigue, she convinces the school drama club to put on Kennedy's original historical play, an absorbing extracurricular activity sure to keep Kennedy away from homework. Meanwhile, upon discovering that Travis is gay, she casually convinces him to be in said production, bringing him closer to the boy she has had a crush on for a long time, thus interrupting her studies as well. But how to distract Michael? Can his feminine charms work with this quiet nerd?
Having given a confident impression in films like "The Nice Guys," "The Beguiled" and the latest "Spider-Man" entries, Rice once again delivers a fine-tuned performance in a complicated role that demands a lot from her. Dressed in head-to-toe retro-preppy ensembles like some sort of teenage Margaret Thatcher, and regularly breaking the fourth wall as a narrator with a Machiavellian smile and wide blue eyes, Rice knows that likability is far from what Honor wants to achieve. , despite what society expects of sweet girls her age. So she creates the character of herself with a performative facade, softening only when Honor develops genuine feelings for Michael, though not before she ruthlessly plays with his prey.
An introverted and reserved geek, Michael also gradually becomes a more confident character, as Rice and Matarazzo accurately navigate the couple's prickly undertones and mutual chemistry. Elsewhere, Kennedy and Travis grow stronger on their own terms, finally thriving as themselves thanks to the unintentional good deeds Honor has done for them. Kennedy especially flourishes as a playwright: Her play about Queen Bloody Mary emerges as an improbably professional and expensive high school production, like a psychedelic period drama directed by Baz Luhrmann.
From "Booksmart" to "Moxie," from "Crush" to the recent "Anything's Possible," there has been no shortage of smart and lively entries in the high school movie canon of late. However, while those movies are safe enough, giving us idealistic worlds where characters are generally designed to do or say the right thing, “Honor Society” aspires to something a bit more dangerous, jarring the audience a bit with a touch of risqué and even sexy. .
Not everything works. It's hard not to wish that her commentary on gender and class fleshed out more, and that the eventual lesson Honor learned went a little deeper than the importance of embracing the true self.
Comments
Post a Comment