Assassination of a High School President

The film noir genre was once an American creative decision born out of contemporary interests and low budget neccessity in the 1940s. Hollywood studios churned out these crime films for roughly two decades and never really paid them much mind until the genre was lent credence by an international community of film critics who recognised an iconically-American cultural artistry. Film noir has since been revisited, used and abused on a periodic basis - often combined with contemporary genres or settings that use it's tropes to explore and exploit new territory. Examples include the sci-fi mash-up of Blade Runner, or traditionalist approaches that seek to combine the groundbreaking techniques of the day with film noir's original era (L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia). More recently, we've seen the genre used to exploit material usually reserved for teen pop culture... the acclaimed indie film Brick and TV series Veronica Mars both come to mind. Assassination of a High School President is another such example, using film noir's most well-known tropes and traditions for a fresh, entertaining spin on high school melodrama.

Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) is a social outcast in a private school who dreams of being a prize-winning journalist. The school's over-achieving student body becomes irate when the SATs are stolen by someone, and Funke is enlisted by school princess Francesca (Mischa Barton) to get to the bottom of the mystery. When Funke discovers that the single-minded school president Paul ("All length, no depth") is responsible it turns the school back around, making the unpopular Funke a hero amongst his peers. However, as Funke begins to dig deeper he realises that there may be more to the mystery than he thought - something that no one really wants to hear, least of all himself.

First up, the use of an American catholic private school is an inspired decision that helps impose an alternate reality where film noir rules seem quite reasonable. The iron fist that the school principal (Bruce Willis) uses to rule the school would seem to go beyond basic civil rights. Yet the idea of school uniforms and elite learning must be sufficiently beyond the average American's experience for private schools to become a believable filmic realm for such restrictions. This opens the gates for a very 1940s-esque detective story... Funke is a smart-tongued, against-the-odds loser who could quite easily have come from a Dashiell Hammett novel. Bruce Willis (who, by the way, is excellent in this) is the tough-talking ex-military representative of the official law. Francesca is the femme fatale who may or may not have set up Funke and her one-time boyfriend Paul. The detention room near the industrial arts class room even stands in for a prison cell (witness the brilliant scene where Funke is dragged from the detention room by hall monitors as he screams at the incarcerated student to give him a name). I could go on and on, the entire film works very hard to create all the tics and quirks of this kind of detective story in a modern American school.

I think Assassination of a High School President might have felt like a half-hour sitcom idea stretched too far over 90+ minutes if it didn't also mix in a few other intriguing aspects. The idea of using film noir tropes in such a recognisable and colourful setting could quite easily stand in for a series of easy jokes in a weak sitcom, but this film comes armed with a genuinely interesting plot and a very smart script that mixes black humour, high brow wit and low brow crudisms (the allusion of a pink, floppy unicorn's horn after someone remarks, "You'll be sucking soon enough" was almost too much for me). Also, the film never forgets that this is a high school - Funke's journey from loser to school hero compromises his ideals just as it would any other high school underdog. The layers of deception and plotting that unfold after this early character shift for Funke is what makes the film such a winner. It packs a lot in, and it isn't your typical teen film.

DIRECTOR: Brett Simon
WRITER/SOURCE: Tim Culpin and Kevin Jakubowski
KEY ACTORS: Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton, Bruce Willis, Michael Rapaport, Luke Grimes, Melanie Diaz, Patrick Taylor, Vincent Piazza

RELATED TEXTS:
- The film Brick fuses the film noir genre with a similar setting, but in a more serious way.
- Assassination of a High School President shares a lot in common with the TV series Veronica Mars... a highly-disliked journalism student as the protagonist, silverspoon prep school elitism, incestuous undertones, the detective angle, post-modern humour and film noir-esque voice-overs. Both deserve your attention!
- The ending references Chinatown, something that a lot of humourous/post-modern takes on film noir tend to do.