Bobby Funke is a dorky high
school sophomore who wants to be a journalist. He is given a tip regarding
stolen SAT exams and runs with it taking down the school’s president in the
process. But, as he begins to revisit the case, he sees a deeper conspiracy.
It is director Brett Simon’s only
feature film. He worked with composer Daniele Luppi, cinematographer M. David Mullen, and production
designer Sharon Lomofsky.
The film has a great young cast
with Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton, Melonie Diaz, Luke Grimes, Patrick Taylor, Aaron Himelstein, Vincent Piazza, Zoe Kravitz, Adam Pally, Tanya Fischer, Zach Roerig, Emily Meade, and Gabrielle Brennan. The adult
cast is also very good with Josh
Pais (who is particularly funny), Kathryn Morris, Michael Rapaport, and Bruce Willis (who is great in
it).
As part of my ‘Movie
of the Week’ series I want to spotlight interesting and good under-seen
films and Assassination of a High School President certainly fits the bill. It is
pretty much a straight-to-video ‘B’ release, but is surprisingly good. It plays
very similarly to Brick
– a hardboiled detective story set in high school – but it is much more a
comedy with a lighter tone. Reece Thompson gives a breakthrough type
performances (but still has not quite found a place outside indie films), and
the rest of the cast creates fun and kooky characters – stereotyped to noir
film archetypes. For fans of noir style hardboiled detective stories, this is a
fun twist on the genre (though, not quite as good as Brick).
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