Rent Rocket Science (2007)

Debating Society, Anxiety Department - Rocket Science review by griggs

Hal Hefner can barely get a sentence out, so naturally he joins the debate team. American indies were invented for this sort of logic.

The stutter makes Hal's teenage panic literal, and he slowly learns that even the smoothest talker can feel out of control.

Reece Thompson plays Hal as a boy who checks every sentence for trapdoors, and he never begs for sympathy. Anna Kendrick, as Ginny, brings early-career menace. She's a teenager who has already weaponised eye contact.

I liked the cruelty best. These teenagers are self-absorbed little sociopaths, which feels about right. Being fifteen is humiliating: bodies betray, mouths ignore orders, and desire turns up long before common sense.

The trouble is the deadpan quirk keeps clearing its throat. For a film about verbal combat, the debates land few punches. Kendrick keeps threatening to walk off with the whole thing. The ending skips the big inspirational speech, then looks faintly pleased with itself for resisting one.

It finds its voice, then mumbles something reasonably charming.