New Port South Movie Review

Great premise, no delivery.

New Port South tells what ought to be an interesting story but flubs it at every step of the way. New Port South is a Chicago suburb and the name of a highschool, where a distressed kid named Maddox (Blake Shields) wants to fight the power. Not only does he equate the constant monitoring of highschool with prison, he's sure there's some conspiracy surrounding a teen who caused a lot of trouble two years earlier. Maddox decides to organize a propaganda campaign and organizes other forms of civil disobedience... to what end? His goals are never clear, except that he wants to take pictures instead of write papers. Well who don't!?

Unfortunately, the story goes virtually nowhere, with pranks being pulled and administrators tearing their hair out, and nary a conspiracy is exposed. And while the plot might have been salvaged by a charismatic lead, Shields is sadly miscast in the lead, having all the energy (and the appearance) of a marshmallow with blonde hair.

If you really want to see high school sent up properly, check out Malcolm McDowell's timeless (yet equally poorly-titled) If....

We meet under the green pole at midnight!