Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this screener, free of charge, from Blue Fox Entertainment, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.
Releasing In Theaters Nationwide, this week, February 9, 2024, Popular Theory, is a new take on what high school is really about....
Synopsis:
12 yr old Erwin (Sophia Reid-Ganzert (8-BIT CHRISTMAS) is a genius, far smarter than any of her high school classmates. But Erwin's genius has come at a price: isolation. She doesn’t have any friends and even her sister thinks she’s a social leper. Determined to win the State Science Fair, she teams up with classmate Winston (Lincoln Lambert (NOPE)), a fellow outcast and chemistry guru, to create a popularity chemical which they add into sticks of chewing gum.
Directed by Ali Scher (JESSICA DARLING'S IT LIST) who also co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Swanson
RUNTIME: 88 minutes
Review:
Named by her deceased mother after scientist Erwin Schrodinger, Erwin sees science as her calling, and in fact, is extremely gifted, so much so that she skipped a grade, sending her to high school, along side her older sister (which as we all know is an experiment doomed with failure from the sibling's perspective, wonderfully portrayed by Chloe East (THE FABELMANS)). With a non-traditional family (her aunt moved in to help take care of them, and her dad (Marc Evan Jackson (The Good Place) who is a a bit in the clouds about raising 2 girls), Erwin already feels left out from 'normal' home life of her peers.
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| Yes, that's a house on his head! |
But her aunt's (Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm)-who does an awesome job in changing wigs in literally every new scene she is in with equal glee for each!) obsession with internet medicine soon sees her finding Erwin's social deficiency to be fixed by taking away her 'science'. While that may mean removing all her science items from her room, the problem is the science fair has a new prize that is just up her alley-a summer course at her favorite science university. There's just one major issue- she doesn't know what to do for it.
Cue new competition from the new boy in class, the equally smart Winston, and she has another problem to tackle! But when they realize they can do better TOGETHER, because of each other's weaknesses, that's when the fun begins. both outcasts for different reasons, they soon start to realize a friendship (or colleague-ness as Erwin prefers).
As they come up with a way to get their science theory into practical form (gum), they have to pick test subjects (Kat Conner Sterling (FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S) is great as the just want to belong teen) and control subjects. But sometimes when one practices science in the wild, one can't really control the parameters. In this case the writer pokes fun at everything that makes kids 'cool' in high school- from selfies, to certain looks, to certain cell phone cases, nothing is safe. As the uncool test subjects get everything they always wanted, they soon realize that they are turning into the mean girl/bully themselves. It's a scary episode, but they soon learn that letting the adoration go to their heads makes them what they used to hate. That a-ha moment is definitely of the moments that parents will want to talk to their kids about, and finding out what makes their peers 'cool' in a farcical setting, might just make them look at the fellow high schoolers a bit differently.
In the end, Erwin and Winston learn a huge lesson about trying to control others, even if it is for a science experiment, and about the value of family and friendship, and how you need those more than you need to be popular, and maybe when you're looking in the right place, you'll find your true tribe.
This movie is perfect for pre-teens on up- older kids and parents will enjoy picking out everything being made fun of (and possibly picking out some hairstyles from Cheryl's awesome wigs, LOL), and it's perfect for family moving night to get kids to open up to their parents about what has changed since they were in high school and the new social pressures put upon them by their peers. Put this one on the watch list!
Check out the trailer:
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