Candy Jar

This is a cute coming of age store about two very competitive teens in their senior year of high school. Bennett wants to get into Yale, Lona wants Harvard, and both are very good at debate. Their rivalry gets in their own way however and they must learn to work together... somehow.

This movie doesn't try to be more than what it is, a cute story about teenagers falling in love, about growing up, about the pressures of getting into colleges. But rapid dialogue and cute chemistry make this very enjoyable and fun to watch.

For the teen romance crowd, this movie has a good premise with two warring teens in the debate club who inevitably fall for each other. But it's actually so frenetic and fast-paced that half the dialogue you will miss as it whirls from one joke to the next. There's a rhythm to comedy and you have to let moments build and sit. This movie has its own unique rhythm to it, and it's fun in a lot of ways, but I just don't think it worked as well as it could have.

Sweet and Smart, part love story, part life lessons Candy Jar is a charmer. A nice turn for both Jacob Latimore (The Chi), and Sami Gayle (Hateship/Loveship), who discover they are greater than the sum of their parts as they vie for a state championship in debate that could lead to admittance into their dream colleges. Light-hearted fare that definitely satisfies your sweet tooth.

Lona and Bennett have been competing since kindergarten, maybe egged by their mothers who seem to have some issues that need to be resolved. And now college is beckoning them - Havard - or Yale - or not. Partly to look good on their CVs they are in the school debate club. But here everything gets very strange as competitive debating seems to have degenerated into a kind of bizarre speed talking contest in which points of evidence are made so fast that scarcely anyone understands.

Lona and Bennett are in some ways hugely similar and in others diametrically opposed so boy - girl, black - white, but both with single mothers, both geeks, bookworms, loners, and both very much attached to Kathy, a school counselor whose room is filled with the candy jars that give the film its title.

It's an unusual idea but it makes the film fresh and different. For me, the nonsensical debating process was a bit of a distraction, but maybe the very fact that we don't understand what they're struggling to achieve, let alone the actual arguments they make, maybe that helps us focus on them and how they matter more.

A simple movie, enjoyable with some good topics. Watched it on a lazy day. It's a good teen movie but, as an adult can also relate.