Release: June 23

Running time: 101 minutes

Rating: M (Sexual references and infrequent coarse language)

In the vain of Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, Rocket Science is a baby of the independent US film trend that flourishes in the quirks of suburban existence. But that does not mean Rocket Science should be categorised as a stock-standard formula.

Writer/director Jeffery Blitz has built on his previous experience with the spelling bee documentary Spellbound to take a fictional look at the competitive world of high school debating. And the clincher – the protagonist participant Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson) suffers from a debilitating stutter.

Hal’s life is in a bit of a shambles; his father leaves his mother during which there is an argument over which luggage he can use to pack his things. While simultaneously – of which Hal is not aware – the New Jersey high school debating circuit is also in turmoil with the top debater Ben Wekselbaum (Nicholas D’Agosto) suddenly ‘losing his voice’ during a farming subsidies debate and dropping out of school. The voiceover is helpful in reminding us that “suitcases end marriages and farming subsidies cause cataclysms”. One of the film’s many charms are the witty one-lines; they catch you off guard sometimes and they’re brilliant.

With a vacancy in the debating team, Ben’s fast-talking former partner Ginny (Anna Kendrick) quickly recruits Hal to the school team. Though trying to make Hal’s speech fluent is laborious, Ginny convinces him that he has a hidden gift and she is making it her job to “ferret debaters from the masses”.

Hal is immediately bedazzled by Ginny and falls head over heals. For Hal, a painfully shy, skinny adolescent, Ginny – with her boobs and brains – is the epitome of womanhood. Their relationship reaches its peak with a clumsy, lustful pash in the janitor’s closet. Probably the only point in the film that could be regarded as cliché.

Besides stutters and girls, Hal must deal with an agenda driven, kleptomaniac brother intent on bullying him to the point of misery. His mother also starts dating again. Her relationship with their neighbour and the father of one his classmates is one of those awkward single-parents-find-hasty-new-love situations. Hal’s own relationship problems don’t seem that important when he has to try and block out their noisy, forty-something lovemaking from the next room.

As an Emmy Award winning director of The Office, Blitz has mastered the art of awkward cringe humour. The simple effectiveness of Hal’s speech impediment is seen in the lunch line at the school cafeteria.

Rocket Science is a coming of age film without the cutsie gloss. Basically, the characters realise that shit happens and sometimes you just have to suck it up and hope things don’t get worse.

Most importantly it’s sweet funny and honest. But if that doesn’t win you over, there is a must-see scene involving a cello being speared into someone’s front window – gold. 

Distinction.