Ahoy, squirts! Quint here to introduce Kraken's latest review from Sundance. I too loved this movie. And so shall you all, says me. This one is probably the most commercial entertainment movie I saw at the fest. It'll do really well, methinks. Here's the tentacled one with his thoughts:

I'm really happy to see that "smart" comedies are starting to come back. Last year with SUPERBAD and JUNO it felt like the time when Kevin Smith first showed up on the scene back in the 90's (when I was a teenager) and brought intelligence back to the teen/collage age comedy, not to mention an R rating that didn't insult its young adult audience.

ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT feels like it's cut from the same cloth as these deep thinking comedies. It's witty characters and style make it the kind of film you'd want to visit a few times over just to hang out with it a little more. Like the film BRICK it takes a High School spin on the Film Noir detective genre, but where BRICK focuses on the darker elements and takes a more serious tone, ASSASSINATION is more faithful to its John Hughes comedy roots. It starts out with our sleuth/reporter Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) looking for his first big story for the local high school paper. He finds it in the form of a robbery of all the completed SAT tests. Everyone seems suspect and interested in this case since it effects all the students, but Funke's clues lead him to the resident super jock and class president Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor) who constantly refers to himself in the third person and spouting about doing things the PM-WAY.

But in classic Noir style, things might not be as they seem. The film is populated by a bevy of insane and super entertaining characters that reminded me a lot of the film CLUE. Bruce Willis's super strict former military principal is probably the most fun I've had watching Willis on screen since Die Hard... and it's no cameo part either, he's an integral part of this film. There is also the Spanish teacher played by Josh Pais that seriously almost steals the film. Honestly, I would almost suggest seeing this film just based on his few scenes. Then we of course have the dame in distress/femme fatale played by Mischa Barton who is sure to have the red blooded males in the audience drooling and shifting uncomfortably in their seat when she's on screen. These characters just scratch the surface of the interesting players in this mystery all tied together by the engaging and clever Bobby Funke.

I know I'm focusing a lot on the characters and not so much the story. I don't want this to give the impression that the story is lacking and the films only strong points are the characters themselves. But writing about a film that is at its roots a mystery, I don't want to give too much away about what happens. But this film is definitely one to be excited about when it comes out. I have a feeling it's going to be a cult hit with High School and College students at the same time being enjoyable for an older audience as well.

The direction and writing is very sharp in ASSASSINATION and I hope the trend for these smarter comedies continues for many more years to come.

Kraken

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