Thursday, January 29, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film: Bowling for SATs

The Perfect Score goes after standardized testing

By Mike Prevatt

In its own little way, The Perfect Score is an ingenious idea for a film. In a genre where the bar is continually lowered in terms of depth and thematic relevance, with rare exceptions, this MTV-produced creation is a minor revelation: Six high schoolers challenge the idea that tests like the SATs are indicative of a student's academic skills, or a determinant of one's future.

It would have been easy for director Brian Robbins (Varsity Blues) to make the usual "school sucks!" film filled with gross-out gags, hip-hop attitude and lots of faux titillation. However, he got ambitious by tweaking the "Afterschool Special" template so it might also stick it to the Man. Somewhere, Michael Moore is beaming.

The film's hero is Kyle (Chris Evans), who needs a higher SAT score to get into Cornell's architecture program. He and GPA-challenged buddy Matty (Bryan Greenberg) devise a plan to sneak into the building where the SAT is drawn up and steal the next test's answers. Along for the ride are overachiever Anna (Erika Christensen), anti-establishment (and daughter of said building's owner) Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), star basketball player Desmond (NBA's Darius Miles) and stoner Roy (Leonardo Nam).

There are all sorts of plot holes and conveniences that require too much suspended belief. And some of the humor feels a bit canned (though the irony is not missed on making the Asian kid, Roy, the fuck-up). However, The Perfect Score earns most of its points by simply questioning standardized testing, including rants about economics, race, sexism and, most of all, the idea that some three-hour test should decide your collegiate and professional destiny. (Given that standardized testing is an integral part of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, perhaps the right-wing pundits will accuse MTV owner Viacom of liberal propaganda.)

Ultimately, these kids end up figuring out what they want from life, and as it turns out, it's nothing they'll encounter on some homogenized test.
"Wow. I hope you guys are hungry for a big omelette."