On the Big Board |
Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
11/94 |
Shane Jenkins |
A mash-up of Wes Anderson/Noah Baumbach that still manages to find its own comedic voice. |
30/33 |
John Seal |
The poster child for bad American indie film |
52/214 |
Max Braden |
The music is great in the beginning but overtakes the movie, as does the stuttering. Anna Kendrick is good. Rent Election with this for a double header. |
A film that emerged from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Rocket Science is another indie film study of the formative teen years. At this point, we'll be able to give quirky indie teen movies their own genre classification. That doesn't mean they're bad, though, and Rocket Science is a film that has been well-received thus far.
The movie centers on a high school sophomore named Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson). Because he's a stutterer, he is consistently tormented by his classmates. Unable to come up with any other way to avoid embarrassment, Hal takes to hiding in the janitor's closet.
Things change for Hal when he is recruited by a girl named Virginia Reyerson for the school debate team. She believes that a little pent-up anger will resolve his stuttering issue, and he thinks that romance could stir if he does as she wishes. He might be getting more than he bargained for, though. The culture of debate teams is filled with competitive players, singular politics, and rules that are meant to be followed. (Kim Hollis/BOP)
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