But things don't always go in Honor’s way.
After years of kissing up to the school’s guidance counselor, Mr. Calvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), for a Harvard recommendation, Honor finds out that she’s actually one of four students vying for it.
First is Travis Biggins (Armani Jackson), the school's star athlete. The second character is Kennedy Park (Amy Keum), an introverted but brilliant playwright. And lastly, Michael Dipnicky (Gaten Matarazzo), the school nerd.
Afraid that they might derail her from her goal, Honor immediately enlists the help of Talia (Kelcey Mawema) and Emma (Avery Konrad) to implement her devious plans to eliminate competition.
In the last five years, there's been an overabundance of terrible teen rom-com films like The Kissing Booth, Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, and He's All That. All of which are stories built on shallow morals, bad decisions, and offensive themes with mediocre acting and direction. Nowadays, it’s rare to find a good movie that encapsulates teenage angst, camaraderie, and romance. For some reason, teenagers are a puzzle to writers and directors. We are so used to them either over-sexualizing the characters or giving us false views about high school and youth, that our guards are always up on movies as tantalizing as this.
Fortunately, Oran Zegman’s "Honor Society" turns out to be more than your typical contemporary teen rom-com. It’s smart, quirky, and sharp. It suffers a little from its oscillating tone shift and gimmicks, but it turns out okay since all the actors are engrossed and devoted, and the story is subversive and fresh.
Unlike its peers, the film is surprisingly inspiring and transfixing. Even though it starts as a scheme filled with bad intentions, it evolves into something benevolent. Inadvertently, Honor’s action highlights the need and beauty of peer support in school and in the community. She may be right to say that you can’t spell sympathetic without ‘pathetic’, but in the end, she helped us understand the magic and wonders of a little compassion. A lesson that would help her, and us, to show our true selves and connect with and understand our peers better.
Of course, "Honor Society" wouldn't be as good as it is without Angourie Rice. Don’t get me wrong, Gaten Matarazzo is terrific and he’s always likable and winsome on screen, but it’s without a doubt that Rice owns this film. She’s engaging and flamboyant, and able to balance perfectly the sweetness, sincerity, and Machiavellian nature of Honor. She’s supposed to be the villain of the story, but with Rice in the driver's seat, it’s impossible not to root for her at every turn.
I might be giving "Honor Society" a lot of credit, but in a plethora of bad movies about teenagers and their issues and sophistication, this film deserves the love and attention it’s getting for keeping everything simple. No pop culture references. No cheesy music. No awkward montages. It also offends no one. Instead, it encourages everyone to work hard, show kindness, and be supportive of their peers. A timely and relevant lesson to impart during these days.
4.5/5
