Go behind the scenes of the most offensive movie ever with High School Shooting: The Musical. A documentary crew is making a film about life after film school for a number of recent graduates, many of whom could not get jobs within the film industry. Adam Baxter (Bruce Novakowski) is one of these recent graduates, who decides to leverage the suicide of his roommate Max into the opportunity to make a film. Adam takes Max’s final script and re-writes it into a musical about a high school shooting. The fellow graduates gather together to make the film, despite worries about the subject matter. Without a doubt, High School Shooting: The Musical is a film that will offend many. Adam is introduced from the start as a pretty unlikeable and insensitive jerk, who is hard to generate sympathy for. He is exploiting his best friend’s death for his own gain and doesn’t consider the consequences of his actions. Also known as After Film School, High School Shooting: The Musical doesn’t really get to the musical numbers until towards the end, which is a shame since they are the highlight of the film. The film is essentially a gloried making of documentary for Adam’s school shooting musical, featuring such caricatures as the cinematographer, who films in his underwear, the seductive Mexican actress, and Superbad bit actor, turned pretentious jerk, Casey Margolis. Since there is so much set up and less than fifteen minutes of payoff, I kind of wished that the entire film was truly a musical about a school shooting, as weird as that sounds. Despite the enjoyable and funny musical moments, High School Shooting: The Musical is a barely watchable and often offensive comedy, which made me wish I was watching, the similarly themed, yet superior film, The Dirties instead. ★ ★ ★ | WATCHABLE Screening Times:
- Fri, March 27, 7:00 PM – The Royal Cinema