Rocket Science

D-

Directed by Jeffrey Blitz

Jeffrey Blitz, the director of the enjoyable and riveting "Spellbound," tries his hand at directing feature films in the truly awful yet still critically lauded "Rocket Science." The film provides further proof that film critics have been seduced by the increasingly awful "quirky comedy" genre that has birthed some of the worst American films in the past few years.

Hal Hefner, a young, sinewy kid with a stuttering problem, is recruited out of the blue for the debate team by hot shot and fast talking debate queen Ginny Ryerson. Not exactly sure what Ginny sees in him but nevertheless intrigued by her interest in him, Hal joins the team and tries to kick his stutter to the curb. Things don't go smoothly, however, and Hal soon finds himself in deep both with both the debate club and Ginny who he has fallen hopelessly in love with.

I had originally bought a ticket to see "Rocket Science" at last year's Fantasia Film Festival but had been unable to attend the screening due to a time conflict. That's too bad, because if I had been able to attend live I might have been able to publicly boo this film as loudly as it deserves to be. "Rocket Science" is riddled with flaws, but overall it could best be described as pretentious, unfunny, poorly written, and derivative. It might not be the worst "quirky teen comedy" ever but it is certainly right up there. It "borrows" freely from films such as "Rushmore" and "Thumbsucker" but is nowhere near as good as either, making the inspiration it culls from both films seem like sloppy plagiarism more than anything else.
The most annoying aspect of a film like "Rocket Science" is that like its "quirky" brethren such as "Juno" and "Gigantic" it insists on giving younger characters a voice that is both irritating and completely lacks any credibility. No teen talks like Juno or acts like Hal Hefner, period. Someone might object and say "Wait a minute! You love "Rushmore" and no one talks like Max Fisher!" This would, of course, be missing the point that Anderson's films are not simply quirky for the sake of quirkiness but rather worlds in which everything is surrealistic and a bit off kilter, a type of hermetically sealed reality that only succeeds because Anderson, unlike Jeffrey Blitz, is a supremely talented writer and director. In films like "Rocket Science," the quirks are just there because they're there and the characters mostly serve the prupose of proving to everyone how smart the writer or director is.
Every contrived bit of "Rocket Science" from Hal's stutter, to his friend's parents "music therapy" which consists of piano and cello Depeche Mode arrangements, to Jonah Hill's cameo as the head of the 'Junior Philospher's' club is hackneyed, predicable, and ultimately annoying. The whole thing just made me want to pop the DVD out of the player and snap it in half. Unfortunately, it was a rental.
Americans have always been great at making comedies and many of the world's funniest films have been American creations. It's a shame that most of the present comic output in American film consists of either raunchy gross out comedies or impossibly pretentious "indie comedies" such as "Rocket Science."