Review of Assassination of a High School President (2008) by Bryan G — 15 Oct 2009

There are going to be a lot of comparisons with Brett Simon's Assassination of a High School President with Rian Johnson's Brick. Both films take a similar approach to storytelling; having a dark and gritty plot that happens to take place in a high school setting. While Brick was more about the shady underworld of drugs, Assassination of a High School President takes a more political stance. And it ends up becoming sort of a teen filled version of All the President's Men.

I felt that Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski's screenplay delivered a pretty strong mystery to wrap all of the film's great and interesting characters together with. The movie focuses on wannabe reporter Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) trying to write an article for the school's newspaper in an attempt to land a spot in a prestigious writing program during the summer. He is given the chance to interview the school's Class President, Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor). What starts off as a boring article becomes more intense as SAT exams are stolen during a school basketball game, and all signs seem to point to Paul Moore.

I thought I had the film figured out many times, but it turned out that I was wrong on many occasions. Even though some of the things I suspected turned out to be true, I still felt this film did a great job handling its mystery. And not once did the high school setting seem odd to me. I liked that the characters carried themselves as if they were in an actual film noir movie. And I enjoyed the film's twists on familiar components to the film noir genre, like replacing cigarettes with chewing gum.

Reece Thompson has been an actor I've been keeping an eye on ever since his amazing performance in Rocket Science. He was a great choice for the role of Bobby Funke, and delivered a stellar performance in the film. Bruce Willis was also great as Principal Kirkpatrick, a Desert Storm vet who still seems to be shell-shocked from his experience. Mischa Barton was decent as Francesca Fachini, the hottie of the school, but I felt that her casting was a bit off. She just seemed so much older than everyone else in the school, and it was hard to buy her as an actual high school student. On a side note, for those who've wanted to see her naked get their first glimpse in this film.

I hope that the film's similar setting and structure to Brick doesn't prevent people from seeing Assassination of a High School President. I think it is one of this year's best hidden gems, and certainly a film that should be sought out. It still amazes me that a movie that is filled with high school students ended up being one of the best mystery films of the year. But hey, if the last line of the film is any indicator, the movie knows it's a high school movie and is proud of it.