Movie Reaction: Science Fair

Formula: Spellbound * Real Genius

It's hard for me to see anything with a tiny box office return. Something under $10 or even $5 million isn't that hard. However, the movies with the jaw-dropping low returns simply don't make it to me in Louisville. Bachelorette is currently the record holder for the lowest grossing movie I saw in a theater*. I saw that at a discount theater, so that wasn't too much of a shock. The biggest catastrophe I've seen was The D Train ($673,151), which got a significant 1009 screen release**. Unless something incredible happens, Science Fair will break my record. It's been out for three weeks. It's only made it to 27 screens and made $110,844. It's a documentary being release by National Geographic. And as much as I enjoyed it, this movie would look more comfortable on the small screen.

*I'm only counting first run. I did see a midnight showing of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil ($223,838), but that was a midnight showing a year after its release.

**For comparison, Bachelorette topped out at 60 screens.

There is a reason why I was able to see a movie with such a small release. I wanted to see this documentary about the high schoolers competing for the international science fair (known as ISEP), because I'm a nerd for that stuff. I used to be obsessed with watching the Scripps Spelling Bee*. Coming of age and high school movies are among my softest soft spots. So, I decided to see Science Fair, because it's late September and nothing better was out. Then, the first shot of the movie is of the Louisville skyline. It turns out, unbeknownst to me beforehand, many of the kids followed in this movie go to a local high school. And then the release of this tiny documentary at a local theater made a lot more sense.

*Fun fact: I once joined a Facebook fan group for one of the kids who did well for several years in a row. He found the group at one point and posted something about how weird and uncomfortable he was about it. I left the group shortly after.

Hometown pride aside, I really liked this movie. The documentary crew follows kids from a number of areas (Louisville, KY, Brookings, MT, West Virginia, Long Island, Germany, Brazil, and probably somewhere else I'm forgetting about). We get to know the kids and sometimes the teachers. In Louisville, there's a hyper type-A girl who is likable but intense. She's countered by a group of guys who are mostly a lot more chill. In Montana, there's a quiet girl who has massive success in relative obscurity. The kid in West Virginia is one of those brilliant people who just isn't interested enough in school to try hard. In Long Island, the focus is on the Science Research teacher who commits her life to her students and gets the very best out of them. The kid in Germany has the calmest story. He's like aeronautics and his project gets him to the competition. In Brazil, the girl has to overcome every obstacle imaginable to make it to the international competition. The stories cover the fully array of situations. It's a well-rounded, decently representative sampling of the kids who would be involved in this competition. Most of the kids are affluent, highly educated, and live in stable homes. The movie isn't trying to make a socioeconomic point. I just don't think there's a lot of hard-luck stories among the kids competing to win, so don't come in expecting that. The movie dips its toes into topics like racism, sexism, and the attention given to athletic achievements over academic ones, but never for long enough  to distract from the focus of the film.

The latter half of the movie takes place at the ISEP competition in Los Angeles. It's familiar to anyone who has seen a movie about a competition or convention. It follows the kids as they go through the different phases of the competition. They all have their own last-second dramas. The film shows off the wide array of people, nationalities, and ideas represented in the competition. Some of the kids manage to win something. Others don't.

I won't pretend that there's anything revolutionary about the documentary from a filmmaking perspective. It's pretty by-the-numbers. The profiles are simple. The documentarians don't insert themselves into the story at all. The talking heads are topical and helpful. No one is trying anything crazy with the camera angles and shots. The kids aren't playing to the camera [more than expected]. the movie is well organized and paced. It's competent and that's all it's trying to be.

The strength of the movie is its optimism. It's hard to come away from the movie feeling bad about the future. It's in good hands. These kids are doing incredible things. I was really humbled by it all. It's especially humbling to realize some of these kids are half my age, doing this stuff right where I live. There's a scene that takes place literally a block away from my apartment. Louisville isn't a place where people film much, so that's a weird thing to see. I don't even care if this kids are doing this just to get into a good college. They are developing medical equipment, designing more efficient ways to travel, and researching how our minds and computers work. The world is a better place because of the things at this science fair.

I thoroughly enjoyed this predictable documentary. The teens it profiles are interesting characters. I didn't need to local connection to the movie to appreciate it, but that certainly helped. If you are tired of all the doom and gloom in your news and entertainment, Science Fair is a terrific jolt of optimism. I needed that, even though I do feel like a complete failure now. 

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend