The Preppie Connection

With a hurried ending, the Preppie Connection hits the highlights of a college boy turned campus drug god. It's all the exciting parts, without much of a deep connection.

Based on a true story, a poor white kid tries to get in good with the rich privileged kids going to a fancy prep school by smuggling in drugs for them to take.

I seen this drug tale before a dozen times, but the film is quite interesting to watch despite. Especially the lead actor Thomas Mann, who became big from Me, Earl, and a Dying Girl. Just like that movie, Mann's character narrates the story, in a very very similar fashion.

Lucy Fry also played an interesting character as well as Logan Huffman who played one of the rich prep school kids. He did a fantastic job of being very unlikable to the point were you like to not like him. very nice.

Worth sitting through.

Ok, all in all it was pretty typical entertainment. I was kind of along for the ride all the way, it was cool to watch poor person become rich, etc. Kind of like 21, etc. Always whenever the poor person goes and gets rich he gets busted lol.

Acting was like... well it was kids, so you know.

Honestly I would recommend this if you're bored, looking for something to watch. It's intriguing, and kept my attention all the way through.

The only thing that killed me was the ending. It was incredibly typical. After-school special. I couldn't handle it lol. Like, beyond "Drugs are bad, mmkay" ending.

Basically when the show looks like it's over, just go ahead and turn it off lol. Nothing special. Well, sort of. Actually there's one interesting part in there.

I liked it because it reminded me of a friend that used to get caught up in stuff like that. Lol. He actually got off the hook though! lol

Was busted and ended up with a mistrial because the car had been searched after detention lasted much longer than it should.

"Stay invisible. Stay out of sight. That was the plan."

Lots of years ago I saw "Christiana F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" (including a masterful German version of "Heroes" by Bowie). After watching it, I was immediately afraid of heroin. The impact this film had on me was indescribable and I decided I'd never start experimenting with it in my life. The image I had of cocaine after seeing "The preppie connection" was that this is just an innocent party drug. It looks like a not so dangerous but a costly drug. To be honest concluding this terrified me a bit. That's pretty much my feeling about this film: an average film based on a true story that left no lasting impression.

Everything revolves around Tobias (Thomas "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" Mann), a teenager from a not so wealthy family who, forced by his mother (Amy Hargreaves), starts his school career at an elite school. His fellow students are the more privileged types who aren't worrying about their study results. If your parents own a well-stocked bank account and you're brought to school in an expensive limo, this is the last thing you worry about. I suppose subtly promised sponsorship by the wealthy family will help eventually. Tobias feels like an outsider. A parasite without money who dares to mingle with the bourgeoisie. The day he helps a bunch of those rich buggers so they don't get expelled from school, his reputation changes drastic. And with the (unintentional) cooperation of the son of a Colombian ambassador (Guillermo Arribas), he sees an opportunity to earn a spot among the wealthier youngsters by smuggling cocaine from Bogota. At the same time he's trying to conquer the heart of Alex (Lucy Fry) and the trust of her boyfriend Ellis (Logan Huffman), a spoiled rich jerk.

The film is based on the true story of Derek Oatis who went to school in similar circumstances. He attended Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite private school where John F. Kennedy once went to school. You can find part of the real story here. Perhaps the facts are a bit distorted and sugarcoated, but what I definitely liked was that '80s atmosphere. When "Just like honey" by The Jesus and Mary Chain echoed through the room, this couldn't go wrong. Maybe that's because I am a huge fan of music from the 80's. The soundtrack may have been a pleasant surprise, but the film on its own wasn't.

Not that it was boring, but it wasn't really intriguing. The clash of social classes in a school environment and the way individuals must assert to be accepted, is a subject that has already been used several times. And drug-related films are also in abundance. Besides, I didn't know it was so dead simple to smuggle drugs in those day. Book a trip to Bogota in Columbia and wander around aimlessly (preferably in the slums) so you can get in touch with some local dealers who keep packets of cocaine in their storage cellar. And in the end you walk calmly through customs. This seemed a little bit too easy to me.

Also the performances were fairly superficial. At first I thought the way Thomas Mann acted in "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" was purely because of the script. Now I'm convinced that this is just his true nature, because he acts the same way here. A timid, somewhat nerdy look and at the same time a humble attitude. He wants to be rebellious, but always decides to keep a low profile. Lucy Fry has the appropriate appearance to act as a toy for the rich boyfriend and also played in other nondescript teen movies (such as "Lightning Point" and "Mako Mermaids"), but her character is essentially a necessary prop. The one who impressed me the most was Logan Huffman. Exactly the same psychopathic empathy as his character in "Final Girl". A brilliant rendition that shows how a drug like cocaine affects your personality and can make you utter schizophrenic. However, when you like to have a quality movie night about these subjects, a combination of "The Breakfast Club" with "Trainspotting" would be a far better option.

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While it's not a great movie, it is still interesting and worthwhile. A lot of what gives it value is that is based on a true story, Although there's a lot of looseness from the true story, it seems to capture it the general gist of the story pretty well. Though far from Oscar material, the film was competently made and decently acted.

It's based on the Choate Rosemary Hall drug scandal, which can easily be googled. There's a nice story from by Newsweek around the time the film was released based upon an interview with Derek Oatis, the real-life protagonist. Since the film doesn't really say what happened afterwards, he was sentenced to 5 years of probation and 5,000 hours of community service. At the time of the Newsweek article, he was an attorney practicing civil and criminal law, so it was nice to learn that his life wasn't ruined by this.