Assassination of a High School President (2008)

A neo-noir about privileged high schoolers? Assassination of a High School President's set-up is appealing, but also impossible to watch and not compare to the near-perfect Brick. Aspiring young journalist and general dork Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) is asked by the editor of the school paper (Melonie Diaz) to do an article on the class president, Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor), a popular basketball player and all-around achiever. When the completed SAT's are stolen from the main office, Funke is approached by his girlfriend, the "hottest girl in school who's also a good student"-type Francesca (Mischa Barton), to find them.

He begins to suspect Paul, as opposed to the usual gang of young criminal minds. Through sly investigating, he gets enough evidence to convince the principal (Bruce Willis) to search the president's locker, out of which, to everyone's surprise (including Paul's), the tests come pouring. Funke is on top of the school and on his way to a special summer program at Northwestern for such probing journalism. However, he soon begins to unearth a deep conspiracy within his seemingly average Catholic high school, and Paul Moore's crime is suddenly not as simple as it seems.

Generally, this film is pretty enjoyable. the script is good- I like the sardonic narration by Reece, and the story is interesting enough. It almost works as a noir parody, harping on the stereotypical elements like the untrustworthy femme fatale and constantly inner-monologuing male protagonist, while throwing in some good jokes. Willis is quite funny as the patriotic principal whose over-intensity simultaneously put me on edge and made me laugh. The story is decent- certain aspects are predictable but I didn't know how all of the various parts of the mystery would fit together. Because it's more of a comedy, the plot isn't as important anyway.

I get what this movie is trying to do, what with the film-noir elements and high school drama and Mischa Barton's boobs. It can be funny when kids talk or act like adults from the 1950's, it's interesting to move a typical mystery to a school setting, and everybody likes seeing hot actresses in Catholic school girl uniforms. I just couldn't get into it as much as Brick, which did it so much better (minus the boobs and uniforms), partially because it took itself seriously. And I couldn't help but compare the two. Also, it's a little character-heavy. Still, it's a cute movie with some cool cast members (I'd love to see Reece Thompson and Melonie Diaz in more movies) and a nice soundtrack.

3.5/5