Honor (Angourie Rice), a high school senior, dreams of getting as far away from her hometown as she can once she graduates. When she learns that the creepy guidance counselor at her school , Mr. Calvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), has an “in” with Harvard admissions, Honor begins to plot the demise of all of her academic rivals. Her plan works with unforeseen and very positive side effects. The most shocking for her being that she’s fallen in love with super nerd Michael Dipnicky (Gaten Matarazzo).
Honor Society (2022) really felt like an attempt to fuse the satirical ferocity of Heathers (1989) with the sentimentality of Pretty In Pink (1986). Honor Society isn’t all that successful at this endeavor which isn’t too surprising since Heathers was made in opposition of John Hughes’ films. One might also add that Honor shares her arc as a character with Cher in Clueless (1995).
Maybe it’s a generational thing but I found Honor’s direct address comedic asides to be both cruel and self-righteous to the point that I actively disliked her character. Obviously the film leans pretty heavily into the notion that Honor’s personality is a performance, but the humanity beneath that mask was glimpsed too rarely through the first two acts of the film. So it really felt like I was just watching terrible people do terrible things to each other without anyone exhibiting any humor or charm whilst doing it.
Perhaps on a revisit at some point in the future I’ll warm up to this film or I’ll get what it’s trying to do. The rest of the film, from the performances to the cinematography, is all competently done though thoroughly unremarkable. Personally I think that David A. Goodman’s script could have used more work. I felt bad that I didn’t really care how Dipnicky’s deceit impacted Honor when I was clearly meant to.
