Since they were children Zack has had a thing for Maddy, the beautiful fresh-faced girl who he watches across the schoolyard but is too nervous to approach. While all around him are talking of their first sexual experiences, Zack contains all of this in his own mind, until one day when a poetry assignment in class sees it unfortunately coming out.
This short film puts us in the very familiar territory of the awkward teen coming to terms with newly developing sexual feelings and sexual reality; this is both a blessing and a curse – one because it can easily be related to by most audiences, but on the other hand it is an area where one struggles to be fresh and not just repeat what has gone before. Flagpole has a decent narrative and in theory a nice development but it has the big obstacle which was that it never felt real to me. The world we are in with Zack is recognizable for its themes but the characters don't ring true and the whole idea doesn't convince. Perhaps it is because I am older, and this environment really is so frank but it wasn't just in the excessive moments where the film didn't wash, it was the more important smaller moments.
The conclusion sees a vulnerable Maddy and on paper it is a lovely conclusion because it is about people being people, but the speed and scale of where she goes is unconvincing and although I liked the ideas, the fundamental blocks of that final scene just didn't work for me. Thompson is good in the lead but perhaps pushed too far to be awkward, while on the other side Cott is pushed too far to be the image of perfection, so for them both to meet in the middle is a gap too big for them to convincingly cross and therefore feels like a jump. Generally the look and feel of the film is decent but the writing lacks the requirement shading and subtlety and as a result it all feels like it is done in broad strokes. It works on that level, but it didn't really do much for me because of how basic and unconvincing it was across scenario and characters.
