Public Schooled

Claire (Judy Greer) is the overprotective single mom of teenager Liam Heap (Daniel Doheny). She is dismissive of public high schools and has been homeschooling Liam everything including sex. He is book smart and headed for Cambridge to study Astrophysics following his hero Stephen Hawking. MacKenzie (Grace Park) is a fellow homeschool mom and Autumn is her even weirder daughter. The kids are at the local high school to take the Graduation Equivalency Exam. Liam falls for public school student, the one-legged Anastasia (Siobhan Williams) and deliberately tanks his test. He pushes his way to be a temporary student taking over sick Maria Sanchez's schedule. Everyone starts calling him Maria. Claire sees this as teenage rebellion and decides to teach it as part of his curriculum.

This is quirky and sometimes funny. Judy Greer is one of the best comedic actresses around. Daniel Doheny is a nice lead but he looks way too good. If anything, this needs more quirkiness. He needs to look nerdier. In general, the whole movie needs more. I love the premise but it needs to shoot for Napoleon Dynamite. There is plenty of potential of achieving that. There is a shocking surreal moment with a fetal pig well into the movie. It needs to do more and earlier or not at all. Either inanimate objects talk to him or they don't. For the students, Siobhan is a great ingenue but the others are lacking. It would have been great if Autumn joined Liam to attend high school. The gay friend needs to be more friend and less annoying. The bully needs to be more buff and younger. He looks like a 80s porn star with a 70s stach. Also, there is a general use of 80s motif like an old computer and an old family car which creates an odd feel in the modern world. The off-centre camera style is also part of that. The lighting is too bright at the school. The editing needs to be sharper and quicker to add pace and quirkiness to the style. It needs to be tighter which would shorten the under ninety minutes running time. The movie needs a few more stories and that's why I would love some more from Autumn. Quite frankly, MacKenzie is fun at the party and the movie needs more of her. There are many very good parts and this works on the whole.

Coming of age high school movies are a well worn staple of the movie industry. Some are great (The Breakfast Club), others are not so much (Ladybird - great acting, but little new or fresh).

This film is funny, different, fresh, and interesting. The home schooled kid and his relationship with his mom are unlike anything else. The cliches of such movies are avoided, and in their place is just a pretty neat story. It won't win any Academy Awards, but is a great show to watch. Enjoy.

This film tells the story of a very protective mother who home schools her son. Her son decides to meet friends by going to a public school.

Though the film is fun and light hearted, the idea of having such a protective and controlling mother really disturbs me. Judy Greer does a good job as the mother, and Daniel Doheny is great as a shy young man. Overall, if the mother is less freakishly and disturbingly controlling, I would have liked it more.

You may like this if you like irrationally absurdist comedies. I feel it was just trying too hard to be funny. It could have worked with quirky characters but instead everything was pushed beyond farce which deprived the movie of real emotion. With a plot that hinges on personal growth, you need real emotion. Check out the good soundtrack though!

"Adventures in Public School" (NR, 1:26) is a comedy from two guys who've spent most of their movie careers as actors and have only recently started working the other side of the camera - Kyle Rideout, who directs and, along with Josh Epstein, co-wrote the screenplay. (Each did the same for 2015's "Eadweard".) This movie was originally titled "Public Schooled" which seems a more fitting title. It's about a high school senior who was always home-schooled, but decides that, before he heads off to college, he wants to spend time in public school - and he really gets "schooled". (See what I mean?)

Daniel Doheny plays Liam, an extremely intelligent, but socially awkward young man. For what seems to be the entirety of his young life (the father's absence never being explained), Liam's mother (Judy Greer) has been his only teacher - and only friend - and they both seem perfectly happy with that - proud of it, even. Then, in a classic case of doesn't-know-what-he's-missing, when Liam goes to the local high school to take the exam he needs for his graduation certificate, he looks around at the school and all the students and decides he wants to finish his education there - but mostly so he can pursue the pretty Anastasia (Siobhan Williams). He intentionally fails his exam, giving him an excuse to enroll in the school.

The story's fairly formulaic, but not stale, in that it displays its own quirky charm. Liam makes mistakes, doesn't talk like most high schoolers and is atypically open and honest for his age group. The scenes of him adjusting to high school aren't laugh-out-loud hilarious, but they are cute, sweet and not uncomfortably awkward. For her part, Liam's mom, who was initially horrified that her son wanted to go to public school, soon gets with the program. Having taught Liam everything else so far, she helps him figure out how to make his rebellious phase as productive as possible and gets personally involved in this new world that's opening up to him. Meanwhile, Liam's socially awkward principal (Andrew McNee) is trying to date Liam's mom, and grandma (Maxine Miller) adorably observes events from the sidelines.

"Adventures in Public School" isn't a typical fish-out-of-water comedy. Liam's challenges never get too serious and his social awkwardness is nicely underplayed. Doheny brings his limited acting resume but considerable charm to the lead role. Rideout has the courage not to make him a stereotypical nerdy kid and the skill to make Liam sweet and adorable - not just because he's socially awkward, but also in spite of it. More experienced actors might've done a better job with some of the roles, but it's the fresh faces in the cast which account for much of this film's appeal. The same could be said of the lack of experience of the filmmakers vs. their fresh approach to the sub-genre of high school comedy. All things considered, it's this combination of elements that works well and makes for such a quirky, fun, feel-good movie. "A-"