A shaggy, good-natured comedy can go a long way simply on the strength of a charismatic central performance, and that’s what co-writer/director Cameron Sawyer gets out of Eddie Perino in this made-in-Utah effort. Perino plays Tim Timmerman, the ambitious, often irresponsible student body president of Mount Vista High School, whose efforts to land a prestigious political internship lead him to Sydney (Chelsea Maidhof), daughter of a Utah Senator. Sawyer sets the story in 1994 for no particularly good reason—other than perhaps showing off a music budget that allows for familiar radio hits—and the narrative sprawls over at least three or four too many sub-plots. But there’s a frisky energy that allows many of the jokes to land, solid supporting performances and a satisfying willingness to make its female romantic lead hearing-impaired even though it’s not necessary from a plot standpoint. Mostly, it has Perino, who takes a mix of Ferris Bueller and
Election’s Tracy Flick that could have come off as insufferably smug and makes him a kid who just needs to do a little growing up. All that, plus dream-vision Bill Clinton as a mentor.
By
Scott Renshaw