SXSW Film Reviews

HIGH SCHOOL RECORD

D: Ben Wolfinsohn; with Jenna Thornhill, Dean Spunt, Bobby Sandoval, Jennifer Clavin, Becky Stark, Mike Watt

Narrative Feature Spotlight

South by Southwest has been a hotbed of documentaries. Teetering on the edge of the mix is this sweet mockumentary of painful, funny high school days. The film's conceit is that two arty students, prone to stopping action for short jam sessions on guitar and drum, are documenting high school as they see it: all nerds and outcasts and messy/hilarious first stabs at love and sex. The action centers on Caleb, a guy who wears aluminum foil shorts to class, and Sabrina, a shaggy-haired, slump-shouldered cutie who alternately likes Caleb and cruelly pushes him away. A lot of High School Record really happened to director Wolfinsohn, and what didn't was improvised by a cast made up of members of Los Angeles punk rock bands including Wives and Mika Miko. The purposely disjointed narrative isn't Napoleon Dynamite, but fans of last year's SXSW surprise and eventual box-office phenomenon should enjoy enrolling in High School Record.

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Dobie, 7:30pm