ReeceThompson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As SXSW approaches -- my flight leaves seven hours from this writing, at an ungodly 5:47 a.m. -- comes the news that a well-received alum of last year's festival is in danger of not seeing the light of day.

Fledgling distributor Yari Film Group was forced into bankruptcy last December. Though YFG continues to operate, at least nominally, all of their planned 2009 releases -- the Sarah Michelle Gellar thriller Possession, the Joe Carnahan-directed Pablo Escobar biopic Killing Pablo, the star-studded caper flick The Maiden Heist -- were left in an uncertain limbo. Now Slashfilm sends word that another of YFG's acquisitions, the high-school-noir-comedy The Assassination of a High School President is in danger of skipping theaters and going straight to DVD, where its lack of profile will mean eternal obscurity.

I saw the film last spring, as I said, and it didn't blow me away. But it does have a charming performance from up-and-comer Reece Thompson, a hysterically funny supporting turn by Josh Pais as an unctuous Spanish teacher, and a nifty noir aesthetic. It definitely deserves a chance to be seen in theaters. With some smart marketing, I think it could do quite well in limited release. But it looks like for that to happen, it will have to find a theatrical distributor that's not in its death throes.

The movie's got a Facebook group you might join to help the process along, and a website you might visit. Just FYI, and thanks to Slashfilm for getting the ball rolling on this one.

One of the many comedies debuting at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Assassination of a High School President is a school-set spoof of film noir, with school paper journalist Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) going from outcast to in-crowd when he dopes out who's been lifting SAT papers from the administration's office. Funke hits the means, motive and opportunity triple play and pins the thefts on student council president and basketball star Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor); his article earns him a coveted internship with Northwestern's journalism program and the affections of Moore's ex, Francesca (Mischa Barton). It's all looking good. Until it isn't. Funke learns new facts that make his sure-thing story look shaky; Northwestern is calling to fact-check the story, and if they find holes, his internship's over before its begun. But Funke's ready to walk the mean halls of St. Donovan's and scour the Jersey suburbs to get the story right. ...

Many critics and observers have already pigeonholed Assassination of a High School President as"Brick played for laughs." And yeah, that's a fairly simplistic assessment; then again, Assassination of a High School President's a fairly simplistic film. Written by ex-South Park production assistants Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski (and between this film and Hamlet 2, it's interesting how the road to Park City, Utah seems to have had an on-ramp in South Park, Colorado this year), Assassination never quite clicks as a total experience. Yes, it's amusing when Thompson, in his self-celebrating inner monologue, says he'll be on the case " ... like pink rubber bands on your sister's braces." And director Brett Simon finds lively, well-shot moments of visual excitement in the clichés of high school life: detention is shot like the big house, a party sequence moves and grooves with giddy chaos. But Assassination has a meandering plot line that dithers when it should drive forward, and lingers at times it should leap ahead. As Funke works leads, we get scenes that expand the running time instead of advance the plot. And yes, holding this film's central pitch up to the life-and-death stakes of Brick -- one of the best films I've ever seen in seven years of attending Sundance -- is going to make the funny-and-goofy stakes of Assassination seem slighter in comparison.

I'm pretty picky about my teen movies. I can enjoy some of the fluffier fare (I didn't detest She's All That), but I usually need a reasonable balance between the unbelievable Hollywood spin and reality. I actually dug 10 Things I Hate About You, mainly because it's one of the few teen flicks that had some alternatively cool characters. I'm also pretty much with Erik Davis about Election being fab. So, I've got high hopes for The Sophomore, the new dark, teen comedy in the works, which used to be called Assassination of a High School President.

As Erik previously posted, the movie is about a sophomore reporter persuaded by the most popular girl at school (Mischa Barton) to look into the theft of SAT exams. Bruce Willis is playing the war vet, Catholic school principal, and Rumer, his daughter, is Barton's sidekick. Now we've finally got the reporter cast -- Reece Thompson. The young actor has been busy with this year's feature film Rocket Science, as well as Zixx and Trollz on television, and a while ago he played the younger Beaver (Jason Lee) in Dreamcatcher. As the reporter, Thompson discovers that the school president (hence the old title) and big jock are responsible, and as The Hollywood Reporter describes it, "a more sinister conspiracy emerges."

If nothing else, I'll be happy to see Willis in a suit. I'm still waiting for the guy to do something comedically delicious like Moonlighting again, and at least this is half-way there -- part action hero (war vet bit), and part suit (principal bit). It'll also be interesting to see his kid in action, and frankly, the pic sounds better than the other one she's currently attached to.