I reckon creator David Seltzer probably saw Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl (1981) and thought, I could do something like that for junior high USA. I'd be curious to know if Lucas is to any degree a self portrait of the writer/director.
Corey Haim plays Lucas, an 'accelerated' student of 14 amongst the 16-year-olds. He's skinny but brainy. Befriending the new girl Maggie (Kerri Green), they're two peas in a pod until the term starts, and then she starts to get distracted by new opportunities, and also the interest of a star football player, Cappie (Charlie Sheen). You can see a bunch of bright young things who went on to become very famous in the 1990s and 2000s in this movie. Lucas starts to feel sidelined, but he is determined to get Maggie's attention back, even if that means trying out for the football team himself.
Well, there's plenty to like. Roger Ebert loved this movie, but he also loved Gregory's Girl, and of the two I find the Scottish movie more believable. One problem I had with the film is that the titular character is actually a bit unlikeable. It made me think of the revisionist reading of Karate Kid, the one that identified hero Daniel as in fact the bully, and the big blonde lad as misunderstood. I started out wanting to feel sympathy for Lucas but as the story played out he began to strike me as a tad manipulative, even obnoxious. Certain things, such as his family situation, or what his motivation was for helping Cappie as per the backstory, these are cloaked in mystery (although the family reveal was quite predictable). The triumphant end to the movie struck me as absurd.
But, in fairness, the film works hard to slip away from the usual meanspirited high school genre cliches. There's a good deal of camaraderie to off-set the typical cliques and meanness.
Kerri Green's performance is the most appealing thing, and her scenes with Charlie Sheen are beguiling, whereas the scenes opposite Haim's Lucas look a bit awkward. Really, one must question the decision to make Lucas two years younger. One doesn't need to be 'accelerated' to feel out of place. All in all, Lucas is much less likeable a protagonist than John Gordon Sinclair's endearingly daft Gregory in Gregory's Girl. Both movie are, in any event, rather dated now, but only this one has a role call of actors who became famous later on: Sheen, Jeremy Piven, Winona Ryder, etc. A pity that Kerri Green can't be numbered amongst them.
A curiosity, much like the bugs Lucas collects.
Corey Haim plays Lucas, an 'accelerated' student of 14 amongst the 16-year-olds. He's skinny but brainy. Befriending the new girl Maggie (Kerri Green), they're two peas in a pod until the term starts, and then she starts to get distracted by new opportunities, and also the interest of a star football player, Cappie (Charlie Sheen). You can see a bunch of bright young things who went on to become very famous in the 1990s and 2000s in this movie. Lucas starts to feel sidelined, but he is determined to get Maggie's attention back, even if that means trying out for the football team himself.
Well, there's plenty to like. Roger Ebert loved this movie, but he also loved Gregory's Girl, and of the two I find the Scottish movie more believable. One problem I had with the film is that the titular character is actually a bit unlikeable. It made me think of the revisionist reading of Karate Kid, the one that identified hero Daniel as in fact the bully, and the big blonde lad as misunderstood. I started out wanting to feel sympathy for Lucas but as the story played out he began to strike me as a tad manipulative, even obnoxious. Certain things, such as his family situation, or what his motivation was for helping Cappie as per the backstory, these are cloaked in mystery (although the family reveal was quite predictable). The triumphant end to the movie struck me as absurd.
But, in fairness, the film works hard to slip away from the usual meanspirited high school genre cliches. There's a good deal of camaraderie to off-set the typical cliques and meanness.
Kerri Green's performance is the most appealing thing, and her scenes with Charlie Sheen are beguiling, whereas the scenes opposite Haim's Lucas look a bit awkward. Really, one must question the decision to make Lucas two years younger. One doesn't need to be 'accelerated' to feel out of place. All in all, Lucas is much less likeable a protagonist than John Gordon Sinclair's endearingly daft Gregory in Gregory's Girl. Both movie are, in any event, rather dated now, but only this one has a role call of actors who became famous later on: Sheen, Jeremy Piven, Winona Ryder, etc. A pity that Kerri Green can't be numbered amongst them.
A curiosity, much like the bugs Lucas collects.