Customer Reviews

Frontrunners

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw this film because I had heard so much buzz about it from movie buffs and politicos alike. We went to Film Forum here in New York City, and the theater was packed; we barely got seats, and by the time the movie started people were standing and sitting in the aisles. I'm not from New York, so Stuyvesant as a phenomenon was new to me, and I don't think it mattered a whit; in fact, I think the movie's themes are wholly universal. What Frontrunners does is place you back in high school again in a way none of the glossy pop-culture or teen reality shows even attempt let alone achieve. The students featured in Frontrunners are complex, funny, incredibly smart and likable, or sometimes not, but always themselves, a credit to the filmmakers and their trust in their material. Their struggles and triumphs are poignant and captured brilliantly--the director is never intrusive but doesn't miss a trick, from one character's fidgeting hands to another's sideways smile. From beginning to end, supporting characters to soundtrack, atmosphere to setting, this film nailed its subject matter and more: turned a slice of real life familiar to anyone who ever attended high school into art. What more can you ask of a documentary? Best film I saw all year, bar none. Buy this DVD for all those who got caught up in this year's national election.

Frontrunners is a delightful film about the student elections at Stuyvesant High School. Stuyvesant is obviously not the typical high school, but the student elections are definitely similar to most student elections at any other high school in the United States. It makes for an interesting insight into how student elections work and how similar they are to the presidential elections.

I started watching Frontrunners right after I watched a movie called "Palindromes" which just so happens to feature Hannah Freiman as one of the main actors. I didn't realize that she would be in both films, and it caught me by surprise. However, after watching Palindromes, it was neat seeing Hannah as a real person rather than her character in Palindromes. Her character is a really awkward 13-year-old that is trying to get pregnant, so it was interesting to see that Hannah was actually a popular cheerleader in real life.

I thought the whole documentary was entertaining and very funny. The students running in the elections pretty much made the film. If the students were boring and mundane, the film would have been much of the same. However, I suppose students that choose to run in the elections are typically interesting characters. I found George to be extremely entertaining, and it didn't even seem as though he was acting that way because he was being filmed. It seemed like he acts in that manner every day.

The documenting of the student elections seemed organic; it didn't seem contrived as if there was a camera following the students around. I'm sure that there was not a camera in the students' faces the whole time during the election, but obviously, there was a camera there for all the parts that we saw.

Overall, I thought the film was great!

I saw this movie at the New York Film Festival (and again with my husband at Film Forum), and really loved it -- both times! While the exceptionally smart kids at Stuyvesant might not be your average high schoolers, you'll still recognize and connect with them. This is a funny movie with wit and heart. The political issues that these young candidates face are more than reminiscent of our recent presidential race, making it a particularly fascinating and fun must-see.

If you're not from the tri-state area, chances are you've never heard
of Stuyvesant High School. Though it is the top math and science school
in New York City, with an average SAT score in the 1400s, the school
that receives twenty-five thousand applicants a year but only accepts
the top 750 runs more like a university than a public secondary school.
Stuyvesant, therefore, is by no means a "typical" American high school,
so just what, then, made this the quintessential place for Director
Caroline Suh to study a "typical" high school election?

"The minute I said I wanted to do a film about the lives of high school
candidates, a friend said I had to check out Stuyvesant," Suh explains.
Perhaps simply for the fact that it is so unlike any other place: it is
a surreal, seemingly fictional world all on its own that tries to run
like a microcosm of the real world, just in a place where everything is
really trivial in the end.

Frontrunners is not about Stuyvesant, though; it is about the students
at Stuyvesant-- a very select few who, although each are unique, do not
seem interesting enough to warrant their own documentary. When thrown
together, though, their different personalities compliment each other
in an odd way and serve to show their school as a bit more well-rounded
than is assumed when someone hears the words "math and science
technical school." Suh does not turn a blind eye to the biggest part of
high school, though-- the popularity of the students-- but she allows
her subjects to be the ones to point out the fact that the
"cheerleaders would vote for Hannah, and the quieter Asians would vote
for George, and the Russian kids would probably vote for Mike."

Suh focuses on who these candidates are and how they campaign, from the
reflective George who integrates science terminology into everyday
speech in a way that you know would get him stuffed in a locker at just
about any other place in the country, let alone the rough and tough
city that is New York, to the eager and outgoing actress Hannah, who
aside from her political aspirations has also appeared opposite Ellen
Barkin in a feature film and guest starred on Law & Order. Suh's camera
is a fly on the wall inside these hallowed halls, watching as these
kids agonize over such seeming adult decisions during the primaries.
Some may have to re-prioritize their extracurriculars, but all have to
put themselves out to be judged in the "public eye" in a place and time
when most just try to fit in. If nothing else, the sheer amount of
pressure and stress these kids put upon themselves is courageous but
also simply stunning to watch. Perhaps the one slight injustice is that
Suh does not mention the elephant in the room: though racial politics
certainly come into play here, not one of the candidates for Student
Union President represents the majority of the school as an Asian
American student. Suh may not have been given such a candidate, but she
doesn't interview and explore why not either.

Suh met surprisingly little resistance from the Stuyvesant community,
and she knows she is blessed for it. Should one candidate (or
candidate's parent, since they were all under the age of eighteen at
the time of filming) refused to be on camera, her production would have
been virtually shut down; she had to be free to roam wherever her
subjects roamed and experience whatever they did. Perhaps as a thank
you for the hospitality, then, Suh does not exploit the missteps of the
young politicians; she shows where they make mistakes or slip up, sure,
but she does not linger the way for which a reality show camera has
trained us to look out. Never biased, she never leads her audience
toward supporting one candidate or another, and even when one in
particular takes some mean-spirited advice from a bitter
gym-teacher-turned-dean about how he should rip apart his opponent in
the debate, Suh skates over the scene, as if trying to soften the blow
and dilute the implications to protect the scrutiny of her young
subject. In a way, Suh's documentary is much more mothering than one
might expect for the harsh, cold world high school has become (or at
least fictionally depicted) of late.

There are no twists to Frontrunners; there is no high drama involving a
personal scandal or fledging grades affecting the outcome of a
campaign. In fact, we rarely see these kids outside of their safe zone
of Stuyvesant High School, and perhaps because of that, they don't
really drop their guard, and we don't get to know them much as people
beyond what's on their resume. Frontrunners can be seen, then, as
almost a video diary for their college application-- all squeaky clean,
professional, and trying to change the world-- but that can't be
genuine all of the time, can it? So in that regard, Frontrunners is
mundane, but nothing in it was faked for dramatic effect, either, so
it's hard to compare it to anything in the past and call it dull.
Stuyvesant is like no other high school, but it's student election is
surprisingly similar to those held in every high school in every city
or town across the country. There are no surprises here, no matter how
much your post-millennium film viewing has trained you to expect
otherwise. The only real thing left to wonder about after viewing
Frontrunners is whether or not the cut-and-dry way it plays out will
mirror itself in the real November 4th election. At any other time,
this film would probably screen only in private, to lightly sprinkled
crowds made up of only Stuy alumni, but the timing couldn't be better,
or the subject matter be more relevant, so Frontrunners will be granted
a run of its own in select theaters on October 24th.