Kids in America

Kids in America (Director: Josh Stolberg)

Stolberg hasn't directed anything recognizable, and it's fairly certain to say that this movie I'm about to review is going to be one of those. Stolberg wrote this with small-time actor Andrew Shaifer, who you may remember as "Basketball Player" in The Cable Guy.

Message comedy. Conformity to the rigid rules of high school isn't cool, but conformity to people subverting those rules is awesome! I've never understood these types of messages. Much like Robin Williams points out in Dead Poets Society after a class exercise where he has students walk around, where they eventually all go at the same pace, as the other students clap them on, "Now some of you are saying to yourselves, 'I would have walked in a different way.' Now ask yourselves, 'Why were you all clapping?'"

Here, Holden Donovan (Gregory Smith) is a high school kid spurred on by his teacher Will Drucker (Malik Yoba) to think and act differently after some students have been suspended for expressing their beliefs. Hottest-Principal-Ever Weller (Julie Bowen) is trying to win a Superintendent election and has decided to crack down real hard, so when Holden gets on a stage and starts reciting Hamlet, ending with an urging not to vote for her and a pretend-suicide, he gets suspended and later expelled. His friends, mostly in an A/V club, rally around Holden with more support from Drucker, waving their noses at authority, and of course, they eventually go too far, but that's not the point dammit!

So, like I mentioned, here's a movie where the message is non-conformity but the students eventually all end up conforming to some other "ideal." Holden gets nearly the entire school to engage in a same-sex kiss after crashing a safe-sex and drugs-are-bad assembly. His girlfriend Charlotte (Stephanie Sherrin) sets up a meeting where tons of kids risk their academic futures, they all get on the phone to start a massive campaign against Weller, it goes on and on. And at the end, we see the kids that actually inspired this movie. Kids who were not afraid to buck the system, or had no idea that they were doing anything wrong and got in trouble anyway, and really--it seems like a wasted opportunity for a good documentary.

Best scene involves homages to screen kisses from the past, with a total copout on the Phoebe Cates fantasy sequence in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Also, with an annoying awareness, Donovan and Charlotte lock lips during the credit sequence to beat the all-time record-long screen kiss. You can see this movie has no focus. But look at all the people who agreed to be in this: Adam Arkin, Rosanna Arquette, Nicole Richie, Elizabeth Perkins, George Wendt, Kim Coles, and Samantha Mathis--not A-list stars, but recognizable at the very least.