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Stay Cool
High school seems to be a
goldmine for comedy films. Filled with stereotypes (the geek, jock,
cheerleader and so on), awkward adolescent urges and oddball teachers,
the halls of a high school open up endless possibilities and stories
that everyone can relate to in one way or another. The high school
movies that manage to gain popularity, however, are the ones that take
these recognizable features and present them in a style of humour that
is original, frank and highly entertaining. Stay Cool is a perfect
example of a movie that doesn’t do this.
Henry McCarthy (Mark Polish) is an author who has published a
best-selling fiction book on high school experiences that rings a little
more autobiographical to those who know him. In returning to his
hometown to deliver a commencement speech to the graduating teens of his
old high school, Henry relives the same emotions and situations that he
used to face eighteen years ago – especially in relation to his old high
school crush, Scarlet Smith (Winona Ryder). As Henry uses this blast to
the past to do the things he didn’t get to do as a geek in his teen
years, he comes closer to imparting wise words to the high school
leavers and finally moving on from his own fears and what-ifs that he’d
been avoiding for so long.
Since Stay Cool projects a reminiscent perspective of high school from
the eyes of Henry, the movie has plenty of potential for a unique take
on high school humour in that it’s not stuck to teen characters
presently at high school, but rather an adult’s revisitation of the
awful and open-ended memories of the past. Instead, the flat acting and
dull characterisation of Henry stumps out this potential and proves that
some thirty-seven year old adults are incapable of maturing from their
past teen behaviour as he sneaks out of his parents’ home, rebels
against teachers and inappropriately takes an eighteen year old student
(Hilary Duff) to the prom. It’s hard to conceive of a more unlikeable
and unconvincing main character. And while his actions could trigger
interesting outcomes, Stay Cool chooses to resolve Henry’s problems
simplistically and cut short any angst-ridden moments so that there is
no space for any compelling or realistic insights into high school’s
abundant store of potentially hilarious situations.
Stay Cool does, however, try to amp up comedy through Henry’s old school
friends; a homosexual stereotype Big Girl (Sean Astin), and an eccentric
dropkick Wino (Josh Holloway), both of whom manage to achieve occasional
moments of over-exaggerated comedy. Of course, there is also plenty of
heart in the film as Henry gets another shot at love with Scarlet, but
unfortunately no amount of romance or dim-witted humour is enough to
make Stay Cool entertaining or exciting. So if high school movies were
to resemble high school stereotypes, Stay Cool would be the forgettable
kid with the uncharismatic and unexciting personality. While it conforms
to all the expected conventions of a high school comedy, the film is
uninventive in its approach to adolescent issues, lacking the wit of a
nerdy film or the slick charm of a popular high school flick.
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