The Wise Kids

It's a very artsy movie, which is a style I actually like, about Christian kids in a small town putting on a play. I'm from a small town, I grew up Christian, I liked plays...so I GET it. Dramarama (2020) brought me here, then I fell down a Stephen Cone hole. Give it a shot.

A very wise alternative for teens, and parents, looking for more than the standard collection of Christmas holiday cartoons and films.

The title has a clear tie-in with the film, but then gets multiple meanings added to it throughout. There's no lingering or dwelling upon it. The story moves quickly along and stays adventurous. Whether you interpret it as a setup for a sequel or a seed planter, the ending is a masterpiece. It's not a simple wrap-up that lets you disregard the rest of the film. Instead, it reinforces emphasis on the story as a whole.

It's main weaknesses are mostly budget related. It has the made for TV look (though the camera angles and work are still excellent), would have benefited greatly from a couple better actors/castings in the adult roles (the main 3 kids all show exceptional skill), and about 5 more minutes of plot development and scene pauses/extensions throughout the film to help reinforce critical parts that less focused people may otherwise miss.

An unassuming no-budget film (there's a long list of Kickstarter contributors in the credits) that has its heart in the right place, even if production values are a bit shaky. Writer/director Stephen Cone doesn't have much of a flair for natural-sounding dialogue, though I was impressed that he gives his most effective speeches to one teenage character (Laura, beautifully played by Allison Torrem) who's not having a crisis of conscience and who stoutly defends the values of the conservative Baptist community she was born into; in two of the more engaging scenes, she explains why she finds female preachers "kind of creepy" (cf. 1 Cor. 13:34, 35) and, later on, pleads with her BFF not to lose her faith because "I totally want to be with you in Heaven."

The more conventional coming-of-age crises of the other main characters didn't seem as compelling, though the performances are perfectly fine; the closeted drama coach's moment of what used to be called homosexual panic is certainly one that any viewer with functioning gaydar will have seen coming from a long way down the road. I agree with other viewers that the film seems to be heavily padded with random atmospherics and drawn-out reaction shots that don't do much to advance the plot; the best line in the script is a barely audible throwaway—a cast member in a Nativity play gets off a wisecrack to the effect of "That's why you'll always be a shepherd and never a Wise Man."

Wow. Movies don't get much better than this little gem.

The setting - a small, very close-knit, conservative Baptist Church in the American Deep South, more than one of whose members turns out to be gay - may be off-putting to some, but perhaps others will get past contemporary stereotypes and discover this wonderful little movie - because nothing in The Wise Kids is either predictable or stereotyped.

None of the characters are one-dimensional villains or good guys, gays don't hate Christians and Christians don't hate gays, homos and heteros get along okay - and yet (and this is the movie's most astounding accomplishment) every person in it is real and complex and nobody gets shoehorned into a false and creepy "let's all just love one another" box.

These are real people, doing what real people do in tough situations. Not ranting at each other like the morons on talk radio and in government but living together, working through their differences instead of using the differences to attack each other.

Without ever being the least bit sappy or manipulative or simplistic, this movie shows what love is: Loving is hard most of the time, and it hurts - a LOT - sometimes, but it's worth every tear and every drop of blood it costs.

This is a fantastic movie. The actors are great, every last one of them (although Allison Torem as Laura is electrifying, the steady, pulsing heart of the movie); the story and dialog are smart without ever seeming to be smart, interesting and entertaining without ever being mindless: just people talking to each other about things that matter to them; and the direction by Stephen Cone - pulling all of this together so beautifully and so powerfully, while writing AND producing AND acting one of the main roles - is just astounding.

I cannot praise this movie highly enough or recommend it enthusiastically enough. It deserves far more recognition than it will ever get.

Throughout much of the movie I kept thinking this was either some Stephen King story about a town taken over by really creepy people from which a number of characters were trying to literally or figuratively flee ... or maybe a Jane Goodall remake where the chimpanzees were replaced by people.

Just about everyone in the movie kept making tight-lipped grimaces or they bared their teeth in even more alarming pseudo-smiles like chimps who were really stressed out, quite often accompanied by these huh-huh- huh vocalizations that might have been intended to mimic laughter. They must have developed muscle cramps in their jaws from the constant flexing of facial muscle, exposing their teeth in Stephen King inspired displays of a death rictus.

Given the discomfort most of the actors appeared to feel it's not surprising that some of them chose to relieve the pressure by over- acting, at times violently.

Beneath all the theatrics and grimacing and numerous unnervingly extended pauses in dialogue as a number characters (or possibly it was the actors themselves) struggled for words, there may have been a message. I did feel the pain and sense of loss of the one character who, towards the end, repeatedly said he didn't know what to do and I could also understand the elation felt by those who had a metaphoric "ticket out of town."

It could charitably be described as a well-intended critical socio- theological story if somewhat confused and heavy-handed. Unfortunately all the antics, histrionics and bathos obscured the point they were attempting to make, rather generously assuming there was a point and that the actors knew what it was.