Forget it Funke, it’s High School.

Assassination of a High School President is a comedic take on the classic detective movie.  Sort of a film noir filtered through a comedic lens in High School.  Very much like “Brick” stylistically, but with more with and a lot more jokes.  Reece Thompson plays Bobby Funke a sophomore wannabe journalist cum detective, who’s asked to write a puff piece about the school’s president.  After the entire school’s SAT’s are stolen he is asked by the femme fatale of the piece, Francesca, played by Mischa Barton to look into finding who stole them.  He is falsely led to believe that the HS President did it and writes a story saying so.  But soon after finds himself re-considering and searching for the truth.

This little gem of a movie was recently released on DVD and it’s really great.  First you have the actors, who without a single exception are all wonderful in this movie (even Barton).  Thompson as the lead is note perfect

at all times and really shines.  But if I had to only give you one reason to see this movie it’d be to see Bruce Willis playing a Gulf War vet and current crazy principal.  He delivers everything you can imagine.  I only wish the movie had more of him.  And yes like I said Mischa Barton does hold her own as primarily a sex symbol leading Thompson off the beaten path.

But they do say story is king, and the story here is just alright.  Overall the plot is predictable and you know everything that’s going to happen.  There aren’t really any twists.  You should go into this as more of a character piece.  Every single quirky character has at least one moment of brilliance.  And there’s a lot of quirky characters filling out a very large cast.

Femme Fatale - HS Version

As much as the plot is a failure, the dialogue is a winner.  There’s just a constant stream of well delivered one liners.  Things like “Don’t fuck the students” and “She was a tough cookie and all I wanted was a taste” are scattered throughout.  One of the things that really appealed to me though was that all of the teenage characters actually behaved like teenagers.  Sure for the style of the movie they were made more adult, but behind that there was always a layer of adolescence.

I’d definitely recommend this movie to really everyone.  It’s worth at least a rental.  You’re bound to find something you’ll enjoy in it. Oh and did I mention you see Mischa Barton’s breasts for about a millisecond?

You can buy it at Amazon on DVD.