Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I've got a little bit of a break before the next film, so I'm doing my first round of catch-up. Day 2 has been covered... that day feature ONCE, THE SAVAGES, THE TEN and 2 movies I really didn't like (WEAPONS is one of them, but as of yet has no distribution so I'm not going to write up a big review to kick a small movie to the curb... but if anyone attending the fest is reading this I thought I'd give fair warning).

The one film I saw yesterday that I haven't talked about yet is ROCKET SCIENCE, which also happens to be my favorite movie after nearly 3 full days of festing. I still have 5 full days to go, so I hope most of those days are filled with films that challenge ROCKET SCIENCE.

Immediately, the focus is going to be on the comedy. Expect people to start comparing this film to NAPOLEON DYNAMITE for no other reason than it's a quirky comedy. In truth, the tone of ROCKET SCIENCE is its own, but the characters are exaggerated, yet set in a world not as cartoonish as they are. So, that's where the ND comparisons will spring from, methinks.

Like most great comedies, the plot is simple: here an adorable, but ambitious high school debate champion uses her charm to lure an introverted stutterer up to the podium. Why? Well, that's why you watch the flick. But there isn't much more to the plot than that. The focus is on the characters.

You have the lead, the young stutterer (played perfectly by Reece Thompson) whose speech problems might be associated with his mother and father always fighting. You have his older brother, a hulking bipolar thief. You have the mysteriously disappeared "legend" of debating (Nicholas D'Agosto). You have the cute, but cruel ambitious young girl who kicks off the plot and steals the heart of Reece Thompson's character. You have the Korean Judge who slides into the stutter's mother's bed when the dad is booted out and loves to loudly talk about the different sexual acts he performs to her in front of both of her kids. You have the weird little bastard that lives across the street of cruel but cute girl (Anna Kendrick), spending his days studying the Karma Sutra and trying it out... with his dog.

That's the main group, but there are dozens more littered throughout the movie.

Thompson as the lead is just so enjoyable to watch. It is painful watching him try to speak publicly or even just order a pizza, but it's the kind of fun painful, like watching Larry David or David Brent dig themselves horrible, embarrassing holes. You feel for him, but it's just absurd enough to make it funny.

The performances are top notch all around. There are a few faces I recognized, but we're talking indie character actors. I didn't know anybody else in the movie, which made it all the easier to buy these people.

HBO Films produced this film and Picturehouse looks to be releasing it in August. This is a great audience movie and one that, if marketed correctly, could be extremely lucrative. It's quirky enough to keep fresh, but mainstream enough to draw in the big crowds. I really loved this movie and I appreciate it the more I think about it. Can't wait to see this again.

Please forgive any sloppiness in these reviews. I'm getting between 4 and 5 hours of sleep a night and seeing 5 or 6 movies a day. I'm kinda writing these on the fly, whenever I have a moment, even if that moment is over buffet lo mien... Yes, there's a Chinese place, with wi-fi, right next to the press screenings...

I'll be back tomorrow!

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com