Honor Society Is A Surprisingly Sharp and Twisted High School Comedy
The pressure of getting into college can be terrifying, but the popular and ambitious Honor Rose (Angourie Rice) is ready to do whatever it takes to get into the Ivy League of her dreams. On paper, she’s a college admissions dream candidate, with stellar grades, leadership positions in extracurriculars, and charity work, but it’s all a front to get what she really wants — which is to get the heck out of her hometown. It all comes down to scoring a coveted recommendation from her creepy guidance counselor. She thinks she has it in the bag, that is until she learns she’s one of four students he's considering for the recommendation. Now she has to put together a plan to take down her competition to get out of her shitty town for good.
From the beginning the film sets up Honor as a manipulative chameleon, doing “nice” things for her fellow students and then breaking the fourth wall to tell us about how this helps her further her plans of sabotage. With a goal to tank their grade point averages, Honor is established as the smartest person in the room as she convinces the theater club to stage outcast Kennedy’s (Amy Keum) play, cast the closeted jock Travis (Armani Jackson) as the lead, and seduce her nerdy chemistry lab partner Michael Dipnicky (Gaten Matarazzo).
There’s a surprising twist as we get into the third act of Honor Society, as it seems someone is onto Honor’s act. The film also successfully pivots from tradition teen rom-coms tropes, while proving that Honor may not be as harsh and cold hearted as it first appeared. Instead, Honor’s acts of sabotage end up helping her fellow students, giving them new outlets, new friendships, and new love interests. Not only has she changed their lives, but her own as well, allowing her to finally be her truest self.
Rice is pitch perfect as the conniving and overachieving Honor, with a journey of growth that feels earned by the end of the film, while Matarazzo is a stand out in a role that allows him to stretch his acting chops from nerd to romantic lead to… something a little darker. Honor Society is a sharp and twisted ride that subverts expectations and delivers surprisingly layered characters that you can’t help but root for. The film ends in a campy yet satisfying way as friendship triumphs over prestige.
Honor Society is streaming on Paramount+.
