Roll back the stone

The Wise Kids

(2012)

One of my Scary Normal peeps recommended this, so I was prepared to like it, but I wasn't prepared to like it this much, and I certainly wasn't prepared to get most involved with and have the most empathy for the awesome-awesome-Jesus girl (Laura,  Allison Torem), who's freaked out by the discovery that her friend Tim (Tyler Ross) is gay. No, I would have expected to focus on Brea, partly because Molly Kunz positively lights up the screen, but mostly because she's the preacher's kid having a crisis of faith.

Laura's only crises involve the faith of her friends--she's a cocksure a Christian as you've ever sneered at, yet the writing (Stephen Cone wrote and directed) and Torem's portrayal of the character make it impossible to sneer; for me to love someone who believes as Laura believes is something of a miracle in itself.

The uneventful post-h.s.-graduation summer of these three is all the story required. In fact, for much of the film the less convincing parallel plot of the church's closeted music director's temptation and of his wife's sexual frustration seems tacked on, but even that solidifies in the final act, and thankfully the film offers no answers, no finality, no certainty. And that lack of satisfaction is eminently satisfying.