Rocket Science

I went back to high school Sunday afternoon, to those painfully awkward years of hope and longing, aspirations and failures. Of wanting to be something more than I was. Of pegged jeans and ponytails. Of impossible crushes. Of banging teeth and smashing noses under the porch light on a first kiss and wondering if there would ever, ever be a second one.

Strangely enough, I loved every second of it. Sunday, at least. (Not so much the first time around.)

In Rocket Science, a wry comedy of adolescent angst, a teenager tackles the mysteries of life, love and public speaking. The movie not only reminded me, reminded us, of our awkward years; it made us laugh.

"He's just so creepy," exclaimed a woman from the front row, remarking on nerdy little Hal Hefner's disturbingly intense older brother. The audience laughed even harder because she was right. He was creepy... and what's with the toothbrush?!

High schooler Hal had a rough time with school, worse than most because of his stutter, not to mention his agenda-driven brother and a floundering home life. Somehow, someway, the poor boy who ordered fish rather than pizza in the school cafeteria because it was easier to say, made his way to the debate team.

Making his feature narrative debut [with Rocket Science], Academy Award®-nominated director Jeffrey Blitz leaves behind the conventions and clichés of coming-of-age tales to instead conjure a world where everyone, regardless of age, is befuddled by desire and the longing for human connection. Mixing humor with a compassionate regard for his characters and their idiosyncrasies, Blitz creates a film about the little insights that can emerge from, and ultimately eclipse, the agonies and disappointments of youth. - © Picturehouse


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