Day 65 -- Home Room

NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO REVIEW TOMORROW. SO GO ENJOY ST. PATRICK'S DAY. THERE WILL BE TWO REVIEWS ON SUNDAY.

Released: September 5th, 2003
   
Starring: Busy Phillips, Erika Christensen, Victor Garber, Raphael Sbarge, Ken Jenkins
 
Writer/Director: Paul F. Ryan

Description: A high school shooting has repercussions on the town and students.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

Before 9/11, most of us had another tragedy that we knew where we were when we first heard about it: Columbine. I was on a school field trip to Washington D.C., and remember that the flags were at half-staff, but I had no idea why. I'm sure there were school shooting before and since, but except for Virginia Tech, none affected me as much.

"Home Room" was obviously a movie inspired by these events. The movie opens with the aftermath of a school shooting, in which the perpetrator didn't shoot at random, but rather, targeted specific students. For those looking for a movie about the events of a school shooting, you will be disappointed. A solid portion of the movie is dedicated to the unlikely bond formed by suspected "accomplice" Alisha (Phillips) and only surviving victim, Deanna (Christensen), and the forced police investigation by Det. Martin Van Zandt (Best Detective Name Ever!), played by Victor Garber.

The storytelling was fabulous as all three characters mention previously were portraying a different question that we have after these tragedies.  Alisha, the only witness to the massacre, is the 'what would happen if you saw classmates die in front of you?; Deanna, the only survivor, is the 'How do you recover after you almost died?', and Van Zandt, the local detective, is the 'who's to blame for this? How can we stop it?'. To their credit, each actor is marvelous in their respective roles. With that said, I am curious to see if a stronger actress, like Rachel McAdams, would have done better than Christensen, who is an average actress at best.

Despite her limitations, I think Busy Phillips was incredible in this film. She knew exactly when to make her character sarcastic, and when to bring out the emotion. She did miss on occasion, but did a great job not giving away the twist with Alisha. Even though she played the role well, I still imaged what the role could have been with a better actress. 

Even in a limited role, Garber was his classy self. The veteran actor, most known for "Alias" and "Titanic", brings a professionalism to every character he portrays, and the detective forced to find someone to blame needed the grounded and posh attitude that he gave it. He had to be sympathetic, not over-bearing, which a lesser actor could have easily done. Garber is one of the best character actor currently working, and should be recognized more.

The most impressive thing I found with this movie was the writing. It was almost perfect for the subject, as it was more about the effect of a situation like Columbine. They didn't shy away from a  sensitive subject, even though I thought they could have went further, and didn't over-dramatize the pain they were feeling. The only fault I found was the side story of Alisha losing her baby, it didn't seem to have any connection the main story. Also, it wasn't a major thing, but I wish they could have revealed why Deanna was targeted, unless I missed the implied reason.

"Home Room", while not an award-winning film, should be viewed by everyone that was in high school during Columbine. This, along with the school shooting episode of "One Tree Hill", should be required viewing for all high school students. It's a shame what our culture has become. Paraphrasing Det. Van Zandt: "When I was their age, I was teased. Then, one day I decided I had enough, and I used my fist to end it. Today, they use guns." It's sad but true.

Rating: 7/10 -- Great storytelling with some genius foreshadow moments. Solid acting from more or less unknown actors. It's the way this subject should be shown, and I wish there were more like it.

Day 46 -- The Perfect Score

Released: January 30th, 2004

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Brian Greenberg, Erika Christensen, Darius Miles, Matthew Lillard

Writer/Director: Mark Schwahn, Mark Hyman and Jon Zack/ Brian Robbins

Description: Six high school seniors decide to break into the Princeton Testing Center so they can steal the answers to their upcoming SAT tests and all get perfect scores.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

Whenever a high school movie picks a particular moment in high school, they tend to blow it out of proportion. There's sports, prom, cheerleading, or graduation, and each have end of the world implications. The writers tend to over-dramatize the situations, so that the teen audience continues to believe their lives are more important than they are normally.

"The Perfect Score" takes on a subject that may actually be important to their lives: the S.A.T. Test. It's plot is definitely something we all thought about during this stressful time, and something that a lot of us dismissed immediately . Stealing the answers to the test is ridiculous and something that only should be in movies. It's a great idea on the surface, a heist movie with high school kids, but something went wrong with the execution.

Everyone's motivation was as stereotypical as you would imagine, but there didn't even seem to be a hint of subtext to their reasons. Desmond (Miles) needed them to play college basketball, Anna (Christensen) wanted to fulfil her parents wishes, Kyle (Evans) wanted to pursue his dreams, Matty (Greenberg) want to reunited with his girlfriend, and Francesca (Johansson) and Roy (Leonardo Nam) didn't disclose their need for the answers. Those descriptions were as deep as they went with it, and the coming of age ending where they all decide that the test didn't hold power over them, was really contrived. By having them do the right thing and not use the answer was the one right thing the writers did with the script.

There's always a reason why a film has three people credited as writing the screenplay. Usually it means the original draft was not up to par, or that someone came up with the story but wasn't a good enough writer to turn in a shootable draft.

Of the three writers, I'm only familiar with Mark Schwahn, who is the creator of "One Tree Hill" and writer of "Coach Carter". There are times in the film where I see some of the comedy that is prevalent in his previous work, but there are also moments and characters that are the complete opposite, that I have to believe he was the late comer to the draft, or that he was rewritten by the other two who had created the story.  I don't see how Roy's character was nothing more than we need a funny Asian kid because you know Asians are good with computers, but we'll give him the added wrinkle that he smoke weed.

The performances were nothing to write home about either, Johansson and Greenberg steal the movie among the six leads, while Darius Miles couldn't even play himself well. Evans was flat as usual, which is something that seemed to plague him early on in his career. He didn't really start coming into his own until he became more of a dramadey/action actor. Lillard's in four scenes and he steals them all, which is nothing new for him. You could tell that a lot of the actors we still learning the craft (except for Miles), and were very inconsistent. It was also refreshing to see Johansson play a character that shows off her acting rather than her sex appeal.

"The Perfect Score" is one of those movie that tried to cash in with the teen demographic, which wasn't all that unusual for films produced by MTV. Although, they tended to be a little more "edgy" than their Disney counterpart, they still were too squeaky clean to have any relevance in the genre. There's a reason short lived shows like "My So-Called Life" and "Freaks and Geeks", and the John Hughes movies from the 80s, still resonate today: they didn't sanitize their plots because they thought the audience couldn't handle it. It's a shame that more filmmaker don't trust the intelligence level of teenagers.

Rating: 5/10 -- It's a watchable movie with some famous faces in it, but I'd recommend checking out their better films first. Especially, Erika Christensen in "Swim Fan", it's a much better guilty pleasure. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll enjoy it, but if you think it's an updated "Breakfast Club", well, please watch "The Breakfast Club" again.