Directed By Brett Simon
Starring Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton, Luke Grimes and Bruce Willis.
Director Brett Simon must be cursing the day that Rian Johnson picked up a camera right now. And who could blame him? Filmed a year and change after Johnson’s blisteringly perfect high school noir Brick, similarly-themed Assassination of a High School President has the unfortunate burden of being subject to a rather damning comparison by all who see it; there’s certainly not a great deal of films this decade that could stand up well in the comparative light of Rian Johnson’s intoxicatingly superb debut film, regardless of genre. It’s even more unfortunate that on its own merits, Assassination – though thoroughly entertaining – is a greatly and inherently flawed film.
Bobby “Funky” Funke (Thompson) is a sophomore journalist working for the school paper when a stack of SAT papers vanish from a safe in the school administration office. When tasked by hottest girl in school Francesca (Barton) with solving the crime, Funke rushes to Woodward and Bernstein his way to the bottom of it, unearthing enough dirt to pin the theft on basketball star/class president Paul Moore. Rewarded with instant acclaim, popularity and the affections of Francesca, Funke’s life begins to look infinitely more rosy, until cracks start emerging in his story, and he begins to suspect that there’s a larger conspiracy to be uncovered.
If Rian Johnson’s Brick was an intelligent, world-weary teenager poring through the contents of its grandfathers attic, finding a well-worn fedora, dusting it off and finding it fits perfectly, then Assassination of a High School President is the 14 year old wandering into school three hours late, wearing an awkward-fitting Humphrey Bogart outfit it got at the costume store, yelling to everyone it passes, “Check out my Philip Marlowe hat! Don’t I look cool?!”; hammering its quirks and gimmicks (a gum addiction is Funke’s school-friendly substitute for cigarettes, while detention is a literal prison, complete with exercise yard) into the ground, Assassination constantly calls attention to the film’s core ‘genre-fish out of water’ gag. Which would be fine if the film were an outright spoof, but it’s never sure if it wants to be a parody or an earnest noir homage, and the result – a disjointed melding of low-brow gags and brooding mystery – is a tonally muddled one filled with overexposed jokes and ideas.
Rather than slyly subvert noir trappings to suit the teenage setting, Assassination is satisfied with simply shoving the genre into a school uniform. It’s this rigid adherence to archetypes, coupled with some lazy plotting, that comprises the film’s biggest failing – the vast majority of the central mystery is telegraphed within the first 5 minutes, with the rest of the runtime spent waiting for Funke to catch up to us.
It’s a shame, too, since despite it’s failings, Assassination is a hugely entertaining film when its not wallowing in easy gags and shallow plot. It coasts on the central gimmick for far longer than it should, feeling closer to Toon Disney’s Fillmore! than the lyrical perfection of Brick or the wit-laced gravitas of Veronica Mars’ greater moments, but Brett Simon’s film is oozing with visual style, riddled with quirky and incredibly fun characters, an endearingly geeky turn from lead Reece Thompson and enough genuinely funny jokes to offset the toilet humour. There’s a lot to love here, it’s just unfortunate that its weighted down by an uneven tone and a slight, obvious plot.
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Assassination of a High School President is available to buy now on DVD in the USA.