Her importance to the teens is such that her untimely death, just after both Lona and Bennett are rejected from their dream schools, feels a bit too transparent-the deus does a bad job hiding in the machina that forces the debaters to lean on each other for support instead of their greatest confidant.Īesthetically, Candy Jar‘s bright score, penchant for split-screen framing, and carefully intimate closeups fit firmly within the feel of modern indie young-love films, with a delightful splash of debate-inspired quirks. Hunt brings wisdom and empathy to the role, and the candy lining the walls of her office is a sugarcoat that makes the hard truths she tells Lona and Bennett easier to swallow, or at least to comprehend. The best character in the film, however, is guidance counselor Kathy, played magnificently by Helen Hunt. Amy can’t quite understand what makes her daughter tick, and she doesn’t quite know how best to provide support, but the love there feels real. Julia’s character can be summarized in this GIF, my single favorite moment in the film:Īnd while Julia’s relationship with Bennett is easier to understand-high-achieving mom demands that her son follow the same path-the bond between Lona and Amy feels more real-life. Each character comes off as petty in her own way, and their history is explored to just enough depth that their beef seems understandable but not reasonable. The rivalry between Lona’s mother Amy (Christina Hendricks) and Bennett’s mother Julia (Uzo Aduba) is both well-developed and brilliantly acted. Part of the reason that Lona and Bennett work out for the viewer in the end is because Klitzman has created wonderful adult characters that humanize the protagonists. Still, though, by the end of Candy Jar, the romance between Lona and Bennett feels well-earned, and their confusion after their first kiss should smack anyone who remembers high school directly in the gut. On one level, I sympathize with poorly socialized teens trying to find grounds for conversation and then not recognize that maybe something more is there…but the friendliness feels a bit too natural for that to be the case. A particularly conflicted scene of this sort arises when Lona and Bennett turn a homecoming at the movies into a first NOT-A-DATE that romantic people consigned to dating apps would dream about in their lonely hours, then utterly fail to realize the significance. By contrast, some of the more intimate moments feel a bit hung-up, which might be chalked up either to our protagonists’ semi-robotic teenhood but might also be a slightly clunky reliance on symbols like french fries and cookies. They’re clearly kindred spirits from the outset, and their dynamic is at its best when they’re going tit-for-tat one especially memorable scene features Bennett logicking Lona into the idea of debating as a team after the two crash out of the individual competition. Crucial to that is the chemistry he builds between Lona and Bennett, which plays fast and loose at times but also conforms well with the characters’ slow awakening. The basis of evaluation for Candy Jar was always going to be the believability of its young leads’ inevitable realization and rejection of their myopia, and here, rookie writer (and current CLS 3L!) Chad Klitzman crafts a tight narrative with enough surprises in the ebb and flow to feel natural. It’s delightfully cringeworthy, and any kid or parent who has experienced a similar environment will be charmed to hell by this film. In other words, the parts of themselves that every Columbia Law student has grown to dislike and learned to suppress upon growing up is on full display. Set on the brutal high school debate circuit, where words fly faster and more furiously than in moot court, Candy Jar tells the story of two Type A teens-Lona (Sami Gayle) and Bennett (Jacob Latimore)-who start out intently focused on winning state championships, getting into their dream Ivy League schools, and hating each other. So even though it’s been the better part of a decade since I was frantically cramming my resume and writing draft after draft of college application essays, Netflix’s new film Candy Jar connected with the current version of me. We have lockers there’s an annual basketball game in a gym with a pep band we go to Law Prom each March there are few enough people that there are no secrets and, at least during 1L year, the pressure to succeed can wreak havoc on even the most resilient psyche. I’ve often mused that Columbia Law School feels more like high school than college.
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