A Sophomoric Teen
Comedy with Heart
By Chris Sabga
"Sophomore"
is a strange little movie that ends up being quietly memorable and
oddly endearing. It's a coming-of-age story with teenage gross-out
hijinks. There's vomit, feces, and female breasts. But there's also a
lot of heart.
The film is split into
several sections: First Day of School, Freshman Friday, Drink King,
and others – culminating, naturally, with the Last Day of School.
Each little vignette focuses on different students, faculty, and
staff.
There are a few name
stars, but the cast is comprised mainly of unknowns and newcomers.
They can't all be great actors, but none of them are bad
either – and there are several surprising standout performances.
Robert Keiper is
downright fantastic as a cool history teacher everyone calls Cap.
Classroom scenes rarely work in movies, but Cap is the kind of
educator most kids dream of having. The sophomores in his classroom
certainly admire him. Keiper's IMDB
profile is shockingly slim for such a great actor, but he
apparently has plenty
of experience doing theater, voiceover work, and audiobooks.
Amanda Plummer's angry, lonely math teacher, Miss Hutz, is the opposite of cool or well-liked. After she goes on a verbally abusive tirade and kicks a slacker named Lionel (Jared Bearce) out of class, he plots his revenge – by planning to sneak into her too-big house and use her toilet. Yes, sophomoric. Seeing his "deposit" there, he feels, will unnerve her. Much like her Oscar-winning father Christopher Plummer, Amanda Plummer knows how to craft a complex character with a wide range of emotions and nuances. Her heartfelt scene with Robert Keiper is one of the best in the film.
Amanda Plummer's angry, lonely math teacher, Miss Hutz, is the opposite of cool or well-liked. After she goes on a verbally abusive tirade and kicks a slacker named Lionel (Jared Bearce) out of class, he plots his revenge – by planning to sneak into her too-big house and use her toilet. Yes, sophomoric. Seeing his "deposit" there, he feels, will unnerve her. Much like her Oscar-winning father Christopher Plummer, Amanda Plummer knows how to craft a complex character with a wide range of emotions and nuances. Her heartfelt scene with Robert Keiper is one of the best in the film.
Freshman Friday is a
longstanding tradition at Helen Keller High where its newest students
are egged, wedgied, and otherwise hazed. The freshmen in the movie
look like little kids while the sophomores look far older than their
15 years – but maybe that's the point.
Another comical
scenario involves Pam (Laura Carboni), Eddie (Amaury Batista), her
cute green car, and her even cuter dog. The girl who plays Pam looks
the right age or slightly younger, and is one of the better actors in
the ensemble. However, the performer portraying Eddie – according
to IMDB – is ancient for a high school sophomore. (Amaury
Batista was born in 1972!) Likely, that's part of the joke
too, because he gets a fake ID and no one bothers to card him.
A secret drinking
contest is
held after-hours at the school among the faculty and
staff – including the janitor (Patrick Warburton) and coach (Brian
Osborne) – with the winner being crowned the "Drink King."
Along with the
sophomoric shenanigans, there's a side story involving a group of 7th
graders – Bob, Elroy, Jeff, and Lenny (Cameron Bloomer, Jeffrey
Ferguson, Christian Bocka, and Chris "Smitty" Smith).
They're now discovering the opposite sex, and one of them has a crush
on a pretty high school girl. Her name – appropriately enough –
is Honey Brubaker (Kristin Vahl). She's Lenny's older sister, so the
boys plan a sleepover at his house to get closer to her. This leads
to a sweet scene between Bob and Honey. The performances from the
four middle-schoolers are generally more natural and convincing than
many of the older "sophomores" in the cast – probably
because they haven't reached that age of self-consciousness yet.
One of my favorite
small touches in the film is a billboard outside the school with
quotes on it: "The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a
friend." – Abraham Lincoln
I'm curious about the
long road this movie went through to finally be seen. I don't have
any concrete details, but behind-the-scenes shots and publicity
photos were posted on Facebook all the way back in February 2009.
IMDB indicates that it didn't come out for another three years after
that – January 13, 2012, to be exact – but no other details are
offered. (Perhaps it was shown at a film festival?) Meanwhile, the
film's official
Facebook page lists October 7, 2014 as the release date (I'm
assuming that was its video-on-demand debut). I can't speak of any
potential financial or distribution issues, because I simply don't
know. I can only speculate that it was possibly a bit too weird and
off-kilter to sell easily. Whatever the reason is, I'm glad it's
available to a wider audience now.
Much like the teenagers
in it, "Sophomore" has its fair share of zits – and shits
and tits – but even with all of the imperfections inherent in a
small movie like this, everyone involved was clearly passionate about
it and believed in what they were doing. Its honesty and earnestness
won me over.