Assassination of chiaraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
.
ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT
World premiere: January 23rd @ Sundance Film Festival 2008
>>>FIVE CLIPS FROM THE MOVIE<<<
two Mischa related (2nd and 4th one)! Watch them (and die!*______*) in streaming HERE:
"Are you a man, Funke?"
♥♥♥
First Assassination Review
"Anyone who thinks they've seen the death of the high school comedy because there's nowhere left to go with the overused genre might appreciate that Brett Simon's clever high school noir debut is more "Heathers" than John Hughes, as it takes a funnier and more biting look at high school than any we've seen in some time without ever going so far as to offend its subjects."
"most of the young women are seductive femme fatales while the detention hall is more like a prison. "
"Brett Simon is an incredibly skilled filmmaker in the way he has taken this sharp, smart script, cast it with an ensemble of incredibly talented young actors, then combined it with classic film imagery and an uber-cool soundtrack of well-selected current and vintage tunes to create a movie that's constantly entertaining despite treading familiar ground."
Read the full review here:
http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/2008/01/review_assassination_of_a_high_1.php
♥♥♥
Sundance Nudity Report
(*drooools*)
Mischa Barton: "Assassination of a High School President"
(1:02) Mischa Barton removes her dress and stands in her black bra as she begins to make out with Reece Thompson.
(1:11) Mischa Barton is in the bathtub with Reece Thompson washing his hair. We can see her breasts just come up over the side of the bathtub.
(1:20) Reece Thompson walks in and sees Mischa Barton in the bathtub again. This time we get a much fuller and clearer view of her breasts as she is there alone.
(1:25) We see Mischa Barton's breasts again in the bathtub in the same scene as before. But now we see another guy in there with her that we didn't see before.
♥♥♥
Quint is in on the ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I just got out of the 8:30am press screening (damn these early mornings!) of ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT, starring Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton and Bruce Willis.
Reece Thompson was the lead in one of my favorite Sundance ’07 flicks, ROCKET SCIENCE that got a limited release later in the year. He plays the geek really well because he’s not really playing the stereotypical nerd in both ROCKET SCIENCE and ASSASSINATION. He’s shy, awkward, but not Napoleon Dynamite or Booger or anything.
In this film he’s a high school newspaper nerd. I’m very familiar with that world and was very much like a fat version of Thompson’s character in the movie. He’s young (everybody thinks he’s a freshman, but he’s a sophomore), he does his own thing, much to the chagrin of the hot editor-in-chief, who he has a little thing for (check, check and check).
Anyway, ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT is a comedy set in a Catholic School. In this case, it’s like mixing THE MALTESE FALCON and ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN and setting it within the world of a Catholic School filled with crazy people.
The craziest might be Bruce Willis, who is the gum-hating Gulf War Vet who might just beat the **** out of his students… and he makes them sing songs about America. You can tell he came in for a few days to do his work, but they pepper him throughout and he’s great.
But not as great as Josh Pais in the bit part of the goofy Spanish teacher. He speaks in a light, effeminate way, always asking for his students to speak to him in Espanol… which of course they never do.
The main thrust of the story is a nerdy high school newspaper writer, who is obsessed with Woodward and Bernstein, is tasked with doing a profile of the student body president, the popular jock Paul Moore (played by Patrick Taylor). As the writer, Bobby Funke (pronounced Funk, but everybody calls him Funky… at some point he just gives up correcting everybody), delves into Moore he finds conspiracy.
The SATs are stolen and Funke is tasked to find out who dun it… by the President’s girlfriend, the hot and popular girl (Barton).
Barton is beautiful, of course, and is totally this movie’s femme fatale. And Mr. Skin better upgrade their servers for the bathtub scene…
If I had any complaint about the film it would be that it seems to be trying really, really hard to be BRICK, but a little less dark. At least that was my worry during the first reel, but thankfully the film finds its own voice as it goes along.
Good stuff here.
♥♥♥
Sundance Review: ‘Assassination of a High School President’
Sundance 2008 has unveiled its first truly great film.
Tuesday morning, a group of bleary-eyed moviegoers stumbled into the Yarrow theater, nursing their mocha lattes. The lights went down, the projector lit up, and we were transported to the distinctive, hilarious and twisted world of “Assassination of a High School President,” starring Mischa Barton, Bruce Willis and 19-year-old Reece Thompson in a role that should make him 2008’s Michael Cera (or, at the very least, Jason Schwartzman).
The flick plays like “Rushmore” meets “The Usual Suspects,” alongside shout-outs to everything from “Sixteen Candles” to “Chinatown” to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” This unlikely concoction is blended together to bring us Bobby Funke, a 21st-century gumshoe who just so happens to have a chewing gum addiction. A rookie reporter for his high school paper, Funke thinks he’s made his career when he takes down the most popular kid, writing an expose on the jock’s theft of the SATs.
After the President’s sexy girlfriend (Barton) and unscrupulous buddies befriend him, Funke begins to smell something unpleasant - and it’s not just because the kid who sits behind him in Spanish class farted in his face.
The film’s central mystery keeps you guessing intelligently, but brilliantly balances every reference to Nietzsche with a joke about a chocolate swirly. Bruce Willis is hilariously intense, Mischa brings the femme fatale back for a new generation, and the supporting cast is filled with breakout young stars. The soundtrack is also one you’ll definitely want to buy, highlighted in scenes like Funke’s crazy, impromptu dance scene that seems like something Napoleon Dynamite might whip out.
The only downside of the film is it feels a bit long, even with a runtime of ninety minutes. Those behind the film plan to make some small tweaks before its August release, and it seems like a tiny bit of streamlining could yield an instant classic. My only fear is that, since it is most reminiscent of the recent cult-classic “Brick,” it might have a similarly difficult time getting moviegoers to give it a chance; if they do, however, word- of-mouth will be strong.
Much like “Juno” and “Superbad,” the film is stuffed with so many rapid-fire laughs that you’ll need to watch it multiple times - especially so you can memorize all the super-quotable lines. I’ve seen the future of movies, folks, and it’s looking Funke.
♥♥♥
Mischa Barton enjoys the ride at Sundance
Who knew it would be possible to cruise through the streets of Park City with the Wasatch Mountains looming, the moon in the sky and Mischa Barton in the back seat of a black Cadillac Escalade, her multi-million-dollar face illuminated by a multi-colored instrument panel big enough to fly a 767?
Barton slipped out the back of the Eccles Auditorium, where her new film, The Assassination of a High School President, by first-time director Brett Simon, had its premiere. She plays Francesca Piazza, the coolest girl at St. Donovan's Catholic High School, which is being roiled by a scandal.
The completed SATs have been stolen from Principal Kirkpatrick's (Bruce Willis) office - and all signs point to the culprit being Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor) - her boyfriend, the president of the student council, star athlete and the coolest guy in the school.
Especially when cub investigative reporter Reece Thompson ("I'm Bobby Funke, and I write for the paper") yanks open Moore's locker and the stack of SATs spill out for all to see.
But this is film noir-come-to-high school in a script by Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski, who live and breathe Chinatown by Roman Polanski, so things aren't what they seem - as the thin voice of the dweeb reporter keeps telling us in voiceover as he peels back the tawdry layers of the microsociety that is high school.
It's not exactly method acting for Barton, either. She went to the Professional Children's School of Manhattan, where they breed the next generation of show-horse actors, not typical kids lighting Bunsen burners when the teacher isn't looking.
"My school was nothing like the one in the movie," Barton recalls as the Caddy slouches up the boulevard. "It was an arts school." Barton took the PSATs, but life got in the way of going on with the SATs and college. The O.C. came along when she was 17 with that juicy part of Marissa Cooper, and "I never finished," Mischa says. "It was an opportunity to learn my craft you couldn't beat."
Her mom, Nuala, who looks a little like British actress Imelda Staunton dressed in wools for the cold, is in the car, silently nodding approval as Mischa says she's considering going to Yale Drama School some day.
Barton has had a fairly fast-lane career with kid parts in Notting Hill, The Sixth Sense and two films that started at Sundance, Lawn Dogs and Lost and Delirious. She now has three high-profile films in various stages of being finished: You and I (Finding tATu) by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields); Walled In, a French-produced horror film in English; and Homecoming, by Morgan J. Freeman (American Psycho II).
She got nabbed not in the fast lane but the wrong lane in West Hollywood in December - she was charged with DUI, failing to use a turn signal and possession of some marijuana.
How does Nuala help Mischa stay balanced and out of that fast lane? "I'm just a regular mom, doing the best I can," Nuala says. "The press has been trumping up things more than they should."
"If people only know how much I work," Mischa adds. "When I'm in my work, I don't go out, I only work. Nine months out of the year, I really work, I have a normal group of friends. The TV show is enormously popular, but there's a downside to that. If things get out of whack in the press, you learn to deal with it."
The Caddy glides to a stop.
"One picture doesn't tell a whole story," Barton says, referring to her mug shot, which lit up the Internet just after Christmas. Kind of a cute mug shot, actually, as these things go. It's nothing like Nick Nolte's mug shot. More like the cops busted a puppy for scampering off the leash. (She is an actress, after all.)
"It's strange that a picture gets as much weight as it does," Mischa shrugs.
Thursday is Mischa's birthday, and she turns 22. She's going skiing at Deer Valley. "Something I've wanted to do the whole time," she says, "and have dinner before I have to do another Q&A at 1 a.m."
And with that, the car purrs off like a hovercraft.
♥♥♥
Mischa: Life has changed since OC
Having completed three films set to be released this year, Mischa Barton's life has certainly transformed since she starred in The OC.
"My life has changed a lot," she said at the premiere of her new movie Assassination Of A High School President at the Sundance Film Festival.
"I've been busy and working and rediscovering everything about making all these films in a row," added the actress, who's also filmed the movies Walled In and You And I (Finding tATu) in recent months.
"It's nice now to take a break and kind of look at what I've done. We didn't have long to shoot this movie but it was fine. I think almost the pressure helped because we joked around a bit, but there was always this time thing hanging over our heads, so maybe it was good for us."
Mischa stars alongside Bruce Willis in the dark comedy about a student who teams up with a newspaper reporter to investigate a case of stolen SAT exams, only to uncover a darker conspiracy.
"I thought it was really smartly written for a teen movie," she said.
"It's got great dialogue and really great characters, and even though they're kind of stereotypical, they're not cliche and I really like that. It's kind of dark, not to say that my sense of humour is dark but I really like where it's at. The characters are hopefully really believable and not over the top."
♥♥♥
Sundance Review: Assassination of a High School President
9/10
love high school movies, don't you? With the Sundance 2005 film Brick, high school movies finally could be smart, interesting, and entertaining. With Assassination of a High School President at Sundance this year, I've discovered yet another great high school movie that combines the strength of both Brick and last year's Rocket Science to create one awesome unforgettable film. I went into this not even looking forward to seeing it and was delightfully surprised.
Assassination of a High School President is about Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson), a journalist for the school newspaper who acts 20 years older than his age, wears a detective-style trench coat, and chews more gum than you eat food. Think Watergate's Woodward and Bernstein embodied into a nerdy a high school sophomore, and you've got Bobby Funke. His first assignment is to write an article on the class president, but when he's coaxed by the "hottest girl on campus" (Mischa Barton) to instead investigate the case of the missing SATs, thinks really start to get sticky.
Since this is a high school movie, let me explain it with a bit of math. Assassination of a High School President is Brick + Rocket Science (thanks to Reece Thompson) + a hotter lead female (Mischa Barton) + better comedy + a stronger script. It's the combination of the best parts of Brick and Rocket Science, two of the other best high school movies in years, and a better script. This movie is solid gold and I'm glad I took the time to go discover what will definitely be one of my favorite movies of 2008, and I truly mean that.
I can't say enough good things about Reece Thompson. This guy is on his way to incredible success, and if two independent high school movies alone can prove that, then I can't wait to see what else he'll do. He builds upon his Rocket Science performance and really takes it to the next level here. Screw Bruce Willis, who has a supporting role in this as the principal, it's all about Reece's spot-on hilarious portrayal of young gumshoe journalist-detective Bobby Funke that not only carries the movie but makes this so damn funny.
The comedy never stops, the story is full of twists that keep you on the edge of your seat, and overall this is one of the best balances of mystery and comedy that I've seen in ages. As is the case with most Sundance movies, because they are usually "finished" being edited the night before they premiere, this could use a bit of tightening before its final presentation, but not much. In the end, Assassination of a High School President could easily be a huge success, and I hope it is, because it's a great movie that deserves endless appreciation.
And did I mention Mischa Barton is smokin' hot?!
♥♥♥
Assassination of a High School President premiered last night, and a few reviews have come out.
FirstShowing gives the film 9/10 and calls it an "awesome unforgettable film." A comedy with a strong script, it is a "solid gold" film. The story is full of twists, the comedy is constant, and it’s a great balance of mystery of comedy. Great review!
The Hollywood Reporter is not as glowing on the review of the film. They cite a number of other high school movies that it ‘doesn’t live up to.’ That said, Mischa Barton is described to have given a "captivating performance."
But we flip back to another positive review from ComingSoon.net. Assassination of a High School President is described as a "clever high school noir" - a combination of crime noir and the world of high school students. The film is described as having plenty of laughs and has a sharp, smart script with incredibly talented young actors. They give it 8.5/10.
LA Times says the movie is played for laughs, but that once the lights went up, none of the critics had questions about the film. Though engaging, the film has "nothing to say." Mischa is said to have "surprising nude scenes" in this movie that include two bathtub scenes with two different guys.
Assassination of a High School President unlike many indie films at Sundance, already has financing for full distribution in the US.
♥♥♥
Mischa, co-star Reece Thompson and film director Brett Simon talk about the movie while in Sundance!
ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT
World premiere: January 23rd @ Sundance Film Festival 2008
>>>FIVE CLIPS FROM THE MOVIE<<<
two Mischa related (2nd and 4th one)! Watch them (and die!*______*) in streaming HERE:
"Are you a man, Funke?"
♥♥♥
First Assassination Review
"Anyone who thinks they've seen the death of the high school comedy because there's nowhere left to go with the overused genre might appreciate that Brett Simon's clever high school noir debut is more "Heathers" than John Hughes, as it takes a funnier and more biting look at high school than any we've seen in some time without ever going so far as to offend its subjects."
"most of the young women are seductive femme fatales while the detention hall is more like a prison. "
"Brett Simon is an incredibly skilled filmmaker in the way he has taken this sharp, smart script, cast it with an ensemble of incredibly talented young actors, then combined it with classic film imagery and an uber-cool soundtrack of well-selected current and vintage tunes to create a movie that's constantly entertaining despite treading familiar ground."
Read the full review here:
http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/2008/01/review_assassination_of_a_high_1.php
♥♥♥
Sundance Nudity Report
(*drooools*)
Mischa Barton: "Assassination of a High School President"
(1:02) Mischa Barton removes her dress and stands in her black bra as she begins to make out with Reece Thompson.
(1:11) Mischa Barton is in the bathtub with Reece Thompson washing his hair. We can see her breasts just come up over the side of the bathtub.
(1:20) Reece Thompson walks in and sees Mischa Barton in the bathtub again. This time we get a much fuller and clearer view of her breasts as she is there alone.
(1:25) We see Mischa Barton's breasts again in the bathtub in the same scene as before. But now we see another guy in there with her that we didn't see before.
♥♥♥
Quint is in on the ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I just got out of the 8:30am press screening (damn these early mornings!) of ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT, starring Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton and Bruce Willis.
Reece Thompson was the lead in one of my favorite Sundance ’07 flicks, ROCKET SCIENCE that got a limited release later in the year. He plays the geek really well because he’s not really playing the stereotypical nerd in both ROCKET SCIENCE and ASSASSINATION. He’s shy, awkward, but not Napoleon Dynamite or Booger or anything.
In this film he’s a high school newspaper nerd. I’m very familiar with that world and was very much like a fat version of Thompson’s character in the movie. He’s young (everybody thinks he’s a freshman, but he’s a sophomore), he does his own thing, much to the chagrin of the hot editor-in-chief, who he has a little thing for (check, check and check).
Anyway, ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT is a comedy set in a Catholic School. In this case, it’s like mixing THE MALTESE FALCON and ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN and setting it within the world of a Catholic School filled with crazy people.
The craziest might be Bruce Willis, who is the gum-hating Gulf War Vet who might just beat the **** out of his students… and he makes them sing songs about America. You can tell he came in for a few days to do his work, but they pepper him throughout and he’s great.
But not as great as Josh Pais in the bit part of the goofy Spanish teacher. He speaks in a light, effeminate way, always asking for his students to speak to him in Espanol… which of course they never do.
The main thrust of the story is a nerdy high school newspaper writer, who is obsessed with Woodward and Bernstein, is tasked with doing a profile of the student body president, the popular jock Paul Moore (played by Patrick Taylor). As the writer, Bobby Funke (pronounced Funk, but everybody calls him Funky… at some point he just gives up correcting everybody), delves into Moore he finds conspiracy.
The SATs are stolen and Funke is tasked to find out who dun it… by the President’s girlfriend, the hot and popular girl (Barton).
Barton is beautiful, of course, and is totally this movie’s femme fatale. And Mr. Skin better upgrade their servers for the bathtub scene…
If I had any complaint about the film it would be that it seems to be trying really, really hard to be BRICK, but a little less dark. At least that was my worry during the first reel, but thankfully the film finds its own voice as it goes along.
Good stuff here.
♥♥♥
Sundance Review: ‘Assassination of a High School President’
Sundance 2008 has unveiled its first truly great film.
Tuesday morning, a group of bleary-eyed moviegoers stumbled into the Yarrow theater, nursing their mocha lattes. The lights went down, the projector lit up, and we were transported to the distinctive, hilarious and twisted world of “Assassination of a High School President,” starring Mischa Barton, Bruce Willis and 19-year-old Reece Thompson in a role that should make him 2008’s Michael Cera (or, at the very least, Jason Schwartzman).
The flick plays like “Rushmore” meets “The Usual Suspects,” alongside shout-outs to everything from “Sixteen Candles” to “Chinatown” to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” This unlikely concoction is blended together to bring us Bobby Funke, a 21st-century gumshoe who just so happens to have a chewing gum addiction. A rookie reporter for his high school paper, Funke thinks he’s made his career when he takes down the most popular kid, writing an expose on the jock’s theft of the SATs.
After the President’s sexy girlfriend (Barton) and unscrupulous buddies befriend him, Funke begins to smell something unpleasant - and it’s not just because the kid who sits behind him in Spanish class farted in his face.
The film’s central mystery keeps you guessing intelligently, but brilliantly balances every reference to Nietzsche with a joke about a chocolate swirly. Bruce Willis is hilariously intense, Mischa brings the femme fatale back for a new generation, and the supporting cast is filled with breakout young stars. The soundtrack is also one you’ll definitely want to buy, highlighted in scenes like Funke’s crazy, impromptu dance scene that seems like something Napoleon Dynamite might whip out.
The only downside of the film is it feels a bit long, even with a runtime of ninety minutes. Those behind the film plan to make some small tweaks before its August release, and it seems like a tiny bit of streamlining could yield an instant classic. My only fear is that, since it is most reminiscent of the recent cult-classic “Brick,” it might have a similarly difficult time getting moviegoers to give it a chance; if they do, however, word- of-mouth will be strong.
Much like “Juno” and “Superbad,” the film is stuffed with so many rapid-fire laughs that you’ll need to watch it multiple times - especially so you can memorize all the super-quotable lines. I’ve seen the future of movies, folks, and it’s looking Funke.
♥♥♥
Mischa Barton enjoys the ride at Sundance
Who knew it would be possible to cruise through the streets of Park City with the Wasatch Mountains looming, the moon in the sky and Mischa Barton in the back seat of a black Cadillac Escalade, her multi-million-dollar face illuminated by a multi-colored instrument panel big enough to fly a 767?
Barton slipped out the back of the Eccles Auditorium, where her new film, The Assassination of a High School President, by first-time director Brett Simon, had its premiere. She plays Francesca Piazza, the coolest girl at St. Donovan's Catholic High School, which is being roiled by a scandal.
The completed SATs have been stolen from Principal Kirkpatrick's (Bruce Willis) office - and all signs point to the culprit being Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor) - her boyfriend, the president of the student council, star athlete and the coolest guy in the school.
Especially when cub investigative reporter Reece Thompson ("I'm Bobby Funke, and I write for the paper") yanks open Moore's locker and the stack of SATs spill out for all to see.
But this is film noir-come-to-high school in a script by Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski, who live and breathe Chinatown by Roman Polanski, so things aren't what they seem - as the thin voice of the dweeb reporter keeps telling us in voiceover as he peels back the tawdry layers of the microsociety that is high school.
It's not exactly method acting for Barton, either. She went to the Professional Children's School of Manhattan, where they breed the next generation of show-horse actors, not typical kids lighting Bunsen burners when the teacher isn't looking.
"My school was nothing like the one in the movie," Barton recalls as the Caddy slouches up the boulevard. "It was an arts school." Barton took the PSATs, but life got in the way of going on with the SATs and college. The O.C. came along when she was 17 with that juicy part of Marissa Cooper, and "I never finished," Mischa says. "It was an opportunity to learn my craft you couldn't beat."
Her mom, Nuala, who looks a little like British actress Imelda Staunton dressed in wools for the cold, is in the car, silently nodding approval as Mischa says she's considering going to Yale Drama School some day.
Barton has had a fairly fast-lane career with kid parts in Notting Hill, The Sixth Sense and two films that started at Sundance, Lawn Dogs and Lost and Delirious. She now has three high-profile films in various stages of being finished: You and I (Finding tATu) by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields); Walled In, a French-produced horror film in English; and Homecoming, by Morgan J. Freeman (American Psycho II).
She got nabbed not in the fast lane but the wrong lane in West Hollywood in December - she was charged with DUI, failing to use a turn signal and possession of some marijuana.
How does Nuala help Mischa stay balanced and out of that fast lane? "I'm just a regular mom, doing the best I can," Nuala says. "The press has been trumping up things more than they should."
"If people only know how much I work," Mischa adds. "When I'm in my work, I don't go out, I only work. Nine months out of the year, I really work, I have a normal group of friends. The TV show is enormously popular, but there's a downside to that. If things get out of whack in the press, you learn to deal with it."
The Caddy glides to a stop.
"One picture doesn't tell a whole story," Barton says, referring to her mug shot, which lit up the Internet just after Christmas. Kind of a cute mug shot, actually, as these things go. It's nothing like Nick Nolte's mug shot. More like the cops busted a puppy for scampering off the leash. (She is an actress, after all.)
"It's strange that a picture gets as much weight as it does," Mischa shrugs.
Thursday is Mischa's birthday, and she turns 22. She's going skiing at Deer Valley. "Something I've wanted to do the whole time," she says, "and have dinner before I have to do another Q&A at 1 a.m."
And with that, the car purrs off like a hovercraft.
♥♥♥
Mischa: Life has changed since OC
Having completed three films set to be released this year, Mischa Barton's life has certainly transformed since she starred in The OC.
"My life has changed a lot," she said at the premiere of her new movie Assassination Of A High School President at the Sundance Film Festival.
"I've been busy and working and rediscovering everything about making all these films in a row," added the actress, who's also filmed the movies Walled In and You And I (Finding tATu) in recent months.
"It's nice now to take a break and kind of look at what I've done. We didn't have long to shoot this movie but it was fine. I think almost the pressure helped because we joked around a bit, but there was always this time thing hanging over our heads, so maybe it was good for us."
Mischa stars alongside Bruce Willis in the dark comedy about a student who teams up with a newspaper reporter to investigate a case of stolen SAT exams, only to uncover a darker conspiracy.
"I thought it was really smartly written for a teen movie," she said.
"It's got great dialogue and really great characters, and even though they're kind of stereotypical, they're not cliche and I really like that. It's kind of dark, not to say that my sense of humour is dark but I really like where it's at. The characters are hopefully really believable and not over the top."
♥♥♥
Sundance Review: Assassination of a High School President
9/10
love high school movies, don't you? With the Sundance 2005 film Brick, high school movies finally could be smart, interesting, and entertaining. With Assassination of a High School President at Sundance this year, I've discovered yet another great high school movie that combines the strength of both Brick and last year's Rocket Science to create one awesome unforgettable film. I went into this not even looking forward to seeing it and was delightfully surprised.
Assassination of a High School President is about Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson), a journalist for the school newspaper who acts 20 years older than his age, wears a detective-style trench coat, and chews more gum than you eat food. Think Watergate's Woodward and Bernstein embodied into a nerdy a high school sophomore, and you've got Bobby Funke. His first assignment is to write an article on the class president, but when he's coaxed by the "hottest girl on campus" (Mischa Barton) to instead investigate the case of the missing SATs, thinks really start to get sticky.
Since this is a high school movie, let me explain it with a bit of math. Assassination of a High School President is Brick + Rocket Science (thanks to Reece Thompson) + a hotter lead female (Mischa Barton) + better comedy + a stronger script. It's the combination of the best parts of Brick and Rocket Science, two of the other best high school movies in years, and a better script. This movie is solid gold and I'm glad I took the time to go discover what will definitely be one of my favorite movies of 2008, and I truly mean that.
I can't say enough good things about Reece Thompson. This guy is on his way to incredible success, and if two independent high school movies alone can prove that, then I can't wait to see what else he'll do. He builds upon his Rocket Science performance and really takes it to the next level here. Screw Bruce Willis, who has a supporting role in this as the principal, it's all about Reece's spot-on hilarious portrayal of young gumshoe journalist-detective Bobby Funke that not only carries the movie but makes this so damn funny.
The comedy never stops, the story is full of twists that keep you on the edge of your seat, and overall this is one of the best balances of mystery and comedy that I've seen in ages. As is the case with most Sundance movies, because they are usually "finished" being edited the night before they premiere, this could use a bit of tightening before its final presentation, but not much. In the end, Assassination of a High School President could easily be a huge success, and I hope it is, because it's a great movie that deserves endless appreciation.
And did I mention Mischa Barton is smokin' hot?!
♥♥♥
Assassination of a High School President premiered last night, and a few reviews have come out.
FirstShowing gives the film 9/10 and calls it an "awesome unforgettable film." A comedy with a strong script, it is a "solid gold" film. The story is full of twists, the comedy is constant, and it’s a great balance of mystery of comedy. Great review!
The Hollywood Reporter is not as glowing on the review of the film. They cite a number of other high school movies that it ‘doesn’t live up to.’ That said, Mischa Barton is described to have given a "captivating performance."
But we flip back to another positive review from ComingSoon.net. Assassination of a High School President is described as a "clever high school noir" - a combination of crime noir and the world of high school students. The film is described as having plenty of laughs and has a sharp, smart script with incredibly talented young actors. They give it 8.5/10.
LA Times says the movie is played for laughs, but that once the lights went up, none of the critics had questions about the film. Though engaging, the film has "nothing to say." Mischa is said to have "surprising nude scenes" in this movie that include two bathtub scenes with two different guys.
Assassination of a High School President unlike many indie films at Sundance, already has financing for full distribution in the US.
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Mischa, co-star Reece Thompson and film director Brett Simon talk about the movie while in Sundance!
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