SXSW Film

Wuss

Lone Star States
D: Clay Liford; with Nate Rubin, Alicia Anthony, Alex Karpovsky, Tony Hale

Not every male teacher who takes an interest in a student is a creep. Mitch (Rubin), a single 28-year-old who lands a full-time gig as an English teacher at his old high school, lives with his mom and receives most of his life advice over games of D&D, but Mitch is not a basement-dwelling sicko. And he's not another wide-eyed do-gooder saving at-risk teens through poetry or martial arts either. He just wants to have written a novel. (And in the meantime, do no harm.) But all that goes awry when three students beat him up after class. A smart (and very pretty) female student, Maddie Worth (Anthony), uses her questionable connections to help Mitch handle the situation without the authorities. Wuss jumps headfirst into this plot, establishing a playful, but boundary-pushing, sense of humor that couches the primary narrative with hints of side plots and background jokes.

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Saturday, March 19, 11:30am, State Theatre