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91A dry, vicious and deeply moving little comedy that sort of takes the structure of a teen sports movie, then undermines that structure at every turn.
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91Fresh, funny and unfailingly observant, Rocket Science is a mood-swinging movie about adolescence that lifts audiences' spirits even when its hero is down in the dumps.
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90This is one of those films that will either hit it big as an indie crossover like "Little Miss Sunshine," or just make some money and become a film nerd favorite. Either way I recommend you don't miss this awkwardly fun gem.
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88I suspect a lot of high school students will recognize elements of real life in the movie, and that the movie will build a following. It may gross as little as "Welcome to the Dollhouse" or as much as "Clueless," but whichever it does, it's in the same league.
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88Teenage angst and adolescent agony are the stuff of sharp, observant comedy this quirky, wonderfully dry first fiction feature from documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound).
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88As fate would have it, Rocket Science might prove to be the handiwork of a burgeoning cinematic genius.
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88The movies have given us plenty of loquacious teenagers – from such fast-talking truants as Ferris Bueller to such overachieving political animals as Tracy Flick ( Election). Hal Hefner is not one of these kids.
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83An odd charmer with a whisper of autobiography (Blitz makes his film's protagonist a stutterer, just as the director was in school) and it's made even better by young lead actor Reece Thompson.
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There is one absolutely inspired scene in Rocket Science, and for this scene alone, it's pretty much worth the price of admission. It occurs when our hero, Hal (Thompson), an occasionally incoherent teenage stutterer delivers his opening remarks during a high school debate.
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75A quirky comedy-drama that gets the bulk of its humor from the well-placed non sequitur. It never seems to be going where you think it is, and that includes its oddly endearing dialogue.
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75To his credit, Blitz throws in an unexpected twist that delivers a more ambivalent ending than your typical sports movie.
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75Blitz captures the melancholy, the rage, the wackiness and drama of adolescence, and he gets winning performances out of his young stars.
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75Rocket Science has the makings of either a tragedy or a crowd-pleasing underdog story, but writer-director Jeffrey Blitz instead takes the movie on a different, and ultimately more rewarding, direction.
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75It is smart, witty and blessedly unpredictable.
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75When it's not opting for whimsy, Rocket Science makes you cringe, which is what's good about it.
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75Rocket Science doesn't go too far into Todd Solondz-style mockery, either; though painful to witness at times, Thompson's determination to face his fears--not just of speaking, but of girls, too--is heartbreakingly noble and courageous.
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75Blitz captures high school atmosphere well – not an easy thing to do – but overall the movie coasts on quirkiness.
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Catapulted by an endearing lead performance by Reece Daniel Thompson as a stuttering high-school student, Rocket Science transcends the predictable high-school yarn and arcs into usually unexplored domains of self-discovery and personal growth in a coming-of-age film.
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70A well-meaning little picture that's piercingly genuine in places and annoyingly affected in others.
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70The surest sign of the movie's integrity is that it resists any temptation to build the story to a climactic debate.
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70This unusually voluble comedy is as eloquent about love, self-realization and adolescent angst as its protagonist is endearingly tongue-tied.
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70Jeffrey Blitz's smart, deceptively lighthearted movie gives audiences an endearing nerd-messiah to revisit that angst for all of us and -- maybe, just maybe -- he'll end up in love and ahead.
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70Quietly written and convincingly played, this coming-of-age story mines its rueful laughs from a thick vein of performance anxiety, in both senses of the term.
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63Doesn't quite work but is worth seeing anyway.
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63The problem with Rocket Science is that the character at the center of the drama isn't very energetic or, truth be told, interesting. This makes it difficult at times to remain engaged in the unfolding tale.
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Once Rocket Science enters the realm of the debate competition, the director's eye for detail never deserts him.
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50For all its flashes of emotional honesty and mordant humor, is nonsense at its core.
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50One of those terminally annoying, depressive-yet-coy Sundance faves in which the tale of a mopey teen misfit unfolds behind a hard candy shell of irony.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 8
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Mixed: 1 out of 8
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Negative: 3 out of 8
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NoraL10
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JohnS.3Poor, boring.
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SeanF.8