Honor Society

A comedy set in an American high school. Honor is in her final year. She has one aim: to get into Harvard and get out of this town. The route goes through one person. Her guidance counsellor writes a recommendation for only one student a year. The man is unpleasant. Honor is after him and does everything she can to please him. Then she finds out. She has three rivals and the counsellor has not decided. From there the film becomes a story of sabotage. Honor makes plans to take her rivals out one by one. One is an athlete, one a musician, and one is Michael. Michael is quiet, top of the class, and speaks to nobody. Honor approaches him. Her plan is to draw him into a relationship and break his concentration. Then she starts actually liking him. What the narrative is interested in is not school but ambition: the film does not present her as good; what she does is plainly bad and the narrative does not try to make it charming. Honor speaks to the audience. She addresses the camera directly and explains her plans, and that device is the film's main instrument. There is a turn in the last section. The narrative reverses who has been steering whom, and that is its best written part. The production was made for a streaming platform. Angourie Rice, Gaten Matarazzo, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Amy Keum are in the cast. Oran Zegman directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes high school comedy and narrators who talk to the audience. Who it is not for: anyone looking for something new; the genre patterns are familiar and the main character's change comes too fast.