ROCKET SCIENCE (Jeffrey Blitz, 2007, USA) A somewhat enjoyable little film that tries a bit too hard to be like Wes Anderson’s RUSHMORE. I just didn’t buy into Hal’s motivation to join the debating team after meeting Ginny one time; I felt this was the writer setting up a cute story. I can’t believe a boy who stutters would join the debating team and stay on even after his “love interest” switches to another school. Revenge notwithstanding, I believe Hal’s actions are too much the product of the creators…and not natural extensions of the story. The film does have a few surprises because it doesn’t always give us the predictable coming-of-age character developments and I especially like the ending. The voice-over narration was a bit intrusive and totally unnecessary; it didn’t help to progress the plot or offer any unique insight. The choice of the Femmes music was also a bit too easy…it’s like the film was just trying too hard to be cool. (C)
It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
ROCKET SCIENCE (Jeffrey Blitz, 2007, USA) A somewhat enjoyable little film that tries a bit too hard to be like Wes Anderson’s RUSHMORE. I just didn’t buy into Hal’s motivation to join the debating team after meeting Ginny one time; I felt this was the writer setting up a cute story. I can’t believe a boy who stutters would join the debating team and stay on even after his “love interest” switches to another school. Revenge notwithstanding, I believe Hal’s actions are too much the product of the creators…and not natural extensions of the story. The film does have a few surprises because it doesn’t always give us the predictable coming-of-age character developments and I especially like the ending. The voice-over narration was a bit intrusive and totally unnecessary; it didn’t help to progress the plot or offer any unique insight. The choice of the Femmes music was also a bit too easy…it’s like the film was just trying too hard to be cool. (C)
