Rocky Goes to High School

Lucas

Written and Directed by David Seltzer

At the USA Charles

TAKE A LOOK at the advertisement for Lucas in any movie listings section. You'll see two teenagers at close quarters who'll remind you of the captain of your high school football team and his cheerleader girlfriend, and you'll have correctly guessed their roles in the film. Off center, in the corner, there is a small, hazy picture of a 98-lb. weakling in a tux. That's Lucas. He's the guy the movie's about.

The advertisement hints at the conflict at the center of this mostly realistic, teen comedy-drama. Lucas (Corey Haim) is an intelligent, sensitive kid with deficient social skills. In short, he's a nerd.

This Rocky of the teen-age wasteland has spent his life avoiding the bout of the social arena, not just out of fear, but because he doesn't believe in its reward. "It's all so superficial," he proclaims with annoying insistence. So Lucas seems destined to remain a loner, capturing bugs for the school terrarium. But then, the inevitable happens. Lucas falls in love. As a dubious knight in shining armor, Lucas must fight for his fair maiden in the dread land of superficiality.

Kerri Green, as a transfer student from another school, is the fair maiden. Initially, she is drawn into a summer friendship with Lucas, sharing his love of classical music and biological oddities. But, alas, she becomes distant as she is caught up in the whirl of high school activities once classes begin.

TO MAKE THINGS more difficult, Lucas isn't the only one after the fair maiden. Cap (Charlie Sheen--yes, another member of the family), is also interested. The pregnant irony of this triangle, an irony that could have been better developed, is that Cap and Maggie are united in their friendship with Lucas and the sensitivity which they acquire through him. Lucas, in a sense, creates his own romantic downfall.

But all is not lost. Lucas, in a desperate move, enters the the ultimate arena of high school prowess--the football field. Physically he is utterly inadequate for such an endeavor, but he attacks the heart of high school superficiality with all the unconventional weapons of his character and his very down-to-earth courage. Will Lucas get the girl? Will his classmates accept him for what he is? Are football players such bad guys after all? This is Hollywood. You can bet at least a compromise with fate will be worked out.

The performances of Green and Sheen are realistically delivered in the understated tones of actual high school life, forming a soft pastel backdrop for the sharp eccentricities of co-star Haim. In one sense the movie is about the resolution of these oppositions in character, of the maturing awareness of Cap and Maggie, and Lucas' discovery of acceptance and the joys of youth.

In both his direction and dialogue, Seltzer has done what very few filmmakers have managed to achieve in recent years. He has created a nearly accurate picture of high school life that is also entertaining. Lucas is one of the best offerings for the teen market in a while, and it also makes good nostalgia for those among us who were not homecoming kings and queens in high school.