Stuyvesant High School is no walk in the part; in fact, it is anything but. Accepting only 3% of the 25,000 students who take the entrance exam, the New York City high school is as competitive as it gets. But nothing can compare the students for the intense month of campaigning that takes place when the role of student body president is on the line. Challenging the seriousness and intensity of a Presidential election, the students at Stuyvesant do it all. From the highly competitive primaries, campaigning and debates to the endorsement decision by the school paper the severity of this election is almost unheard of in high school. But to Hannah, Matt, Mike and George, it is just another day at school, working to be the best"¦at everything.
Containing the perfect story and charismatic characters Frontrunners had everything going for it. But unfortunately, the election doesn't live up to the hype as the intensity and drama wasn't generated as expected, leaving the ending forthcoming and the expectations unmet.
My first major problem with this film is my own history. Having run in a highly competitive election my junior year of high school, I know the intensity, the drama and the nerves, and unfortunately none of that was present throughout the film. The campaigning was boring, the students seemed uninterested, and most importantly, the results didn't seem to be that big of a deal. Sure each candidate wanted it and sure the tension was tight between the two; however, I wasn't sold on it. And we never got to see the candidates interact, with the exception of the lame, uneventful debate, and thus missed out on their true personalities, a true qualifying mark for any high school election.
On top of that I have to say that I am very disappointed with the lead candidates. Before the primaries took place there were four tickets, consisting of a president and vice-president candidate, and I have to say that none of them looked like they could actually serve as a student body president. Their personalities were off, their social life overextended and their likeability non-existent. Yet, you can only vote for one that runs, and so the choice was eventually made.
But with that said, I do want to commend Caroline Suh for her amazing directorial job. Getting to the bottom of the school's election politics, Suh successfully presented an exaggerated form of most student elections while keeping her characters in check.
The film isn't horrible, in fact it is quite decent; however, I feel that Caroline Suh got unlucky by filming in an uneventful year. But I have to reiterate that her style and creative aspect was definitely present, though it ultimately affected the film very little.
