I have never attended a prep school before but I did watch a few thriller dramas like Cruel Intentions. This made me intrigued in Sean Nichols Lynch’s Prep School because, as a lower middle class person, the violence and drama afflicting the rich makes me not want to be wealthy.
The plot of the movie revolves around a group of rugby players studying in a school in Northern California. Coach Winters (Stewart Finley-McLennan) trains them on the significance of team spirit, and loyalty to the teammates as well as winning at all costs. This is followed by an out-of-control style of toxic masculinity. One day, rugby star Greg (Stephen Brookins) goes out with the boys and to his girlfriend’s dorm. To his absolute rage, he hears her moaning from someone’s bed, so he goes absolutely nuts, and the whole team helps him out.
The cunning member of the team, Caleb (Ben Bellamy), makes plans to get back at Greg’s girlfriend, Kyra (Carly Schroeder). He doesn’t regard her as very religious and considers her to be a pro-choice abortion activist which irks him greatly. One day he sees her at a pro-life rally and decides that he will befriend and flirt with her. His end goal is to sneak into her medicine cabinet and tamper with her birth control so he can get her pregnant. This plan is pretty f****d up.
Because of these deep feelings, Greg has been forced to shut himself away from school and rugby. The team is family to him, and he knows no one just runs out on family. Coach Winters certainly doesn’t. None of them have any clue where his star player ran away, but the slightly crazy Tony (Austin Scott) decides that he needs to find out. The longer Greg remains out of the picture, the more furious Tony becomes.
The moral center of the story is Tom (Taylor Lambert). He is the Boy Scout of the rugby team whose grades are straight and is an intern’s dream come true. The only assignment remaining is an essay on how the school has prepared him for life. With an automatic A in hand, Tom begins to come to grips with the toxic environment of the school and the reality of his teammates’ shortcomings.
Prep School presents itself as some sort of an indie teenage sex comedy, but there is no sex, or indeed, sex of any form. It is a soap opera drama as it almost exclusively revolves around how far males overflowing with testosterone can go in winning games and ruining lives for sport. As the devious Caleb, Ben Bellamy gives a standout performance. He has this gentle Jekyll and Hyde look and his scheme to get Kyra pregnant is absolutely hideous and the more it works out the more vile it is.
The remaining subplots can be considered normal, rote, or bog-standard, and they feature a secondary character who is perpetually angry and imposing. It is clear Tom, whom we all know is the film’s hero, suffers emotionally and physically through prep school. I don’t want to say much, but it would be nice if the resolution for Tom was a touch more upbeat while perhaps providing some ironic payoff for Caleb and Tony. Instead, we are left with a rather dark theme that brings the story to a close, and it is not a pleasant one.
Other than the issues I have head with the closing minutes, the story is coherent and consistent. Given that most of the cast is relatively obscure, they didn’t do badly at all. Most of the movie was filmed during the day which made the brighter-than-average lighting combined with the budget set pieces made it appear less cinematic and more like television in a CW or Freeform channel. Not in a derogatory sense, but I need to temper my appreciation
Any devoted fans of teen soap on TV, especially 90201 or Riverdale, who are willing to buy independent films and stories not made by major studios or networks would appreciate Prep School.
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