CINEMA: Rocket Science

Here’s another film for all of life’s losers – hey guys (and gals) you may not make it to the top spot, but you’ll find your niche. Teenage Hal (Reece Daniel Thompson) may have a good mind, but it’s a bit difficult to let people know how witty he is when his stammer keeps getting in the way. Which makes it all the more surprising when high achiever Ginny (Anna Kendrick) approaches him to join the school debating team. Hal can hardly say hello, let alone master the super-fast speech technique needed for debating against the clock, but he decides to give it a go as he’s smitten with the forceful Ginny. From hereonin Hal’s life just gets weirder as he befriends the kid who lives across the road from Ginny (just so he can spy on her), keeps getting pushed around by his big brother (Vincent Piazza), gets drunk for the first time and finally meets the legendary Ben (Nicholas D’Agosto) who crashed out of the Debating Championships in explosive style the year before.

With a sweet-as-popsicle indie soundtrack and some superb performances this puts a new twist on the Heathers/Napoleon Dynamite school of teen angst misfit movies. What gives it its biting edge is a script that’s so acidic it sometimes makes you wince. It’s weird, surreal and loopy, but always utterly believable and anyone who has been through puberty will recognise the cringe-worthy awkwardness of the teen years as portrayed here.
Dee Pilgrim