Review of Stay Cool (2011) by Vitaliy S — 06 Sep 2014

After graduating high school and getting as far away from his small home town as possible, Henry McCarthy(Mark Polish, who also wrote the screenplay while his brother Michael directed) made it big by writing a best selling novel about his high school experiences. That entitles him to give one high school commencement speach. But somehow the airline is not so impressed when they lose his luggage. At least Henry has friends(Sean Astin & Josh Holloway) who are still there to give him a ride from the airport. And then Henry starts immediately obsessing over Scarlet(Winona Ryder) who barely knew he existed in high school and has problems of her own currently with her ex-husband Brad(Marc Blucas).

"Stay Cool" is an uneven comedy with some great moments in amusingly detailing how high school never really ends. One can simply try to move on as best as one can. Just as much as Mark Polish's awkwardness in the lead works both for and against the movie, the movie's main strength comes from its supporting cast, namely Winona Ryder who definitely needs to be in more movies. Otherwise, there are a couple of odd references and product placement.