'Assassination' is a shallow mystery

"Assassination of a High School President" is a faithful re-creation of the film noir detective genre set in a high school. Sound familiar? The 2005 movie "Brick," which also played Sundance, covered the same ground. This time, though, the whole thing is played for laughs.

The production, directed by veteran Sundance short film director Brett Simon, moves by at a quick enough tempo that you never have time to think that once you understand the film's basic conceit, there's nowhere else to go.

The audience at the premiere at the Eccles Theatre on Wednesday night seemed to feel like I did. They applauded the movie, but when the lights went up and a sizable portion of the film's young cast (including Mischa Barton) took to the stage and opened it up for questions, no one had anything they wanted to know.

"Uh, how did you make the pencil stick in the wall?" one audience member ventured. The Q&A time was filled, but it felt like people were coming up with stuff to avoid an awkward moment.

The film's main character, high school newspaper reporter Bobby Funke, is played by "Rocket Science" star Reece Thompson, and it's his personality that keeps the whole thing engaging, at least on a surface level. But to stop and think about it is to realize that the movie really has nothing to say. High-schoolers' lives are just as complex and multilayered as adults'? John Hughes did it better and didn't have to use genre gimmicks. Despite her surprising nude scenes, no awkward questions were thrown Barton's way. Though one audience member did ask her when she was finally going to go to college. "I'm turning 22 tomorrow," she said. "So this is probably the last time I'll be playing a high school student."

-- Patrick Day

Comments

[Ana Maria]

So...how DID they get the pencil to stick in the wall?

[Patrick Day]

Reece Thompson fielded that question. His answer? "Movie magic."

There you have it.