SAN ANTONIO — [The following review was written as part of KENS 5's coverage of the SXSW 2022 Film Festival. Follow @RealDavidLynch on Twitter for more.]
How much is too much when it comes to discussing the specifics of Maureen Bharoocha’s impish “The Prank”? I’m sure the director of this twisty SXSW selection, which starts as a sorta-“Booksmart” riff before ending in a place far closer to the festival’s Midnighters lineup, would be delighted to know at least one critic is pondering the dilemma, given how much her film delights in characters who take things just a little bit too far.
It revs to life on a chain reaction of such actions. The first domino is tipped by viciously strict high school teacher Mrs. Wheeler (Rita Morena, chalking up another incredible performance with natural ease), then by golden-boy overachiever Ben Palmer (a nervy Connor Kalopsis), forced to go along with BFF Mei Tanner’s (Ramona Young, simply electric) playful online ploy to get back at Mrs. Wheeler when she threatens to fail her students upon suspicion of a cheater amongst them–effectively holding Ben’s college scholarship chances hostage.
It’s a great setup, bolstered by an excellent dynamic between platonic pals Ben and Mei as well as Bharoocha’s savvy direction; she keeps things spry and silly enough to keep cliches mostly at bay while providing an early glimpse of the high-school comedy’s evolution in the age of TikTok. Ben’s got enough drive and forward-thinking motivation for both him and his longtime bestie, but an uncanny hint of truth accompanies purer cinematic pleasures as we realize how nothing motivates Tanner– the slacker who spends first period sleeping in her car – like a little bit of digital fabrication to frame Mrs. Wheeler as a potential prime suspect in the case of a long-missing student.
The meme-scheme is all fun and games until virality becomes reality. Social media is a matchbox that comes drenched in kerosine in Rebecca Flinn-White and Zak White’s screenplay, and if “The Prank” lacks the penetrating anxiety of an “Eighth Grade,” it at least understands how stories can capture a community’s attention as fast as it will eventually lose it. It turns out the movie’s got a lot on its mind – the manipulation of media, intergenerational rivalry, the thin boundary between youthful innocence and idiocy – and you sometimes wonder if Bharoocha set out to direct a second feature effort with enough material for her third and fourth too.
But “The Prank” remains fairly economical for most of its 90 minutes, even if Bharoocha treads increasingly shaky ground the more her film moves beyond high school institutions. A subplot about Ben and Mei’s history as a two-man musical group, meanwhile, runs out of gas before it ever really begins (though it does give us the best visual gag), and some half-baked sentimentality doesn’t accomplish much more than bridge the divide between how movie starts and what it ends up resembling.
Then comes the movie’s biggest shift, arriving with the force of a story finally dislodging itself from shallow waters into the depths it was made to journey this whole time. On one hand, it’s hard not to think “The Prank” is navigating the least interesting path as it dials down intriguing ideas for the sake of lowercase-t-thrills. On the other hand, that may be precisely the intention in a time where the social media space is where teens find out about how acts of fancy become real consequences, real fast.
Which isn’t to say the movie is meant to be all that serious. Though its commentaries become pricklier and not necessarily sharper, “The Prank” remains a satisfying and surreal ride that powers through its most rote turns on the strength of a memorable ensemble. The power-duo of Kalopsis and Young cover an impressive range with committed flair; character actors like Keith David and Kate Flannery make for delightful bench players; and Moreno, in a role that is everything her turn in “West Side Story” was not, delivers line readings as if they had fangs.
“The Prank” is ultimately as dizzying as a scroll through TikTok, taking its cues from a whole syllabus of inspirations over just 90 minutes, from schoolhouse comedy to slight satire to….well, no need to spoil. Needless to say, Bharoocha should be commended for having her hands in so many genre pots while staying relatively steady on the tonal tightrope, and for ferrying this story about the Internet’s ability to spin viral fabrications into unwitting realities with a vision that’s unique enough for “The Prank” to justify its most jarring swerves. This is a cheeky movie that knows it’s being cheeky, and it should play like gangbusters to audiences who can appreciate that about it as well.