A few of Hollywood’s most sturdy style conventions need to do with outsiders and underdogs, typically two classes rolled into one, who present up the self-important elites. The cowboy who rolls into city and brings justice in a not-quite-law-abiding means. The lovable con artist who makes a idiot of the uppity society of us. The washed-up cop or spy known as in for one final covert mission. The stereotypical sorority lady who seems to be a secret authorized genius.
That final one is, in fact, the “Legally Blonde” heroine Elle Woods, a vogue main who decides on a whim to go to Harvard Legislation Faculty and discovers her unconventional {qualifications} give her perception that her extra buttoned up classmates lack. Rex Simpson, the protagonist of “House Cadet,” bears greater than a passing resemblance to Elle, and never simply because the actress Emma Roberts might play, at a squint, Reese Witherspoon’s niece. (Her precise aunt, Julia Roberts, performed one other scrappy underdog in “Erin Brockovich.”)
Roberts’s most well-known work could be in Ryan Murphy’s exhibits “American Horror Story” and “Scream Queens,” by which her knack for enjoying a sure form of queen bee — beautiful, merciless, one disaster away from combustion — makes her a magnetic presence. She’s nice at a caricature, elevating these characters to satire with out diluting their sugary poison. That aptitude for exaggeration would appear to make Rex Simpson the best function for her.
“House Cadet,” a comedy written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, is forged intently alongside the traces of “Legally Blonde,” with some beats lifted so clearly from that film I began to marvel in the event that they weren’t meant as jabs. Rex is a neon-wearing bartender in Florida who wrestles alligators and likes to social gathering on the seashore, however there’s greater than meets the attention: She was a little bit of a science genius in highschool, and dreamed of being an astronaut. When her mom died, she turned down a full experience to Georgia Tech. By the point she attends her 10-year highschool reunion together with her finest buddy, Nadine (Poppy Liu), she’s down within the dumps over her failure to, uh, launch.
An opportunity encounter with a former classmate who now runs a non-public spaceflight firm sparks one thing in Rex. It’s time to chase her goals. So she pops open the NASA web site and decides to use to be an astronaut. One drawback, in fact, is that she has completely no {qualifications} for the job. However is that an actual barrier to Rex, the girl who invented patent-worthy tanning mirrors?
The film continues on this course, sending her to NASA in a crop prime to develop into an Astronaut Candidate (or AsCan, a moniker that gives various jokes). Right here is the place the “Legally Blonde” comparisons are available in. There’s, as an example, a scene in a classroom the place Rex doesn’t know the reply to a stern professor’s query, then one later the place she does, demonstrating her progress. There’s a complete sequence by which folks look askance at Rex upon her arrival at NASA, due to her peppy, kooky outfit that indicators unseriousness.
Her cohort appears oddly acquainted, too. It features a fairly and high-strung imply lady (Desi Lydic), who is set to take Rex down as a result of she’s satisfied she’s not certified to be there. Rex makes a buddy (Kuhoo Verma) who wants a number of confidence classes, and she or he offers them. There’s an overserious overachiever who simply got here again from six years of remoted Arctic analysis (Josephine Huang), a homosexual M.I.T. graduate who proclaims himself a “smoothie artist” (Troy Iwata), an unsmiling former particular forces operative (Yasha Jackson) and a patriotic former army captain (Andrew Name).
Most of all, there are the 2 good folks overseeing the AsCan coaching program, Pam Proctor (Gabrielle Union) and Logan O’Leary (Tom Hopper), whose British accent is defined away within the screenplay by handing him twin citizenship. Logan is the love curiosity, in fact, although I had bother staying desirous about him. His fundamental draw, as Rex ultimately informs us, is his accent and his glasses.
Like Logan, a lot of the characters really feel extra like acquainted sorts than precise folks — not unusual in a fast-paced, lighthearted comedy. However which means there’s nothing shocking sufficient within the film to immediate laughter. The jokes really feel drained. The actors are principally doing their finest, however the screenplay too typically leaves them mimicking comedy somewhat than performing it.
All of that extends to Rex herself. If the freshness of a “Legally Blonde” film comes from how features of the character’s weaknesses (many hours logged in a magnificence salon, as an example) grow to be strengths, the issue with Rex is we don’t know her weaknesses. She’s a bartender — everybody calls her a bartender to foreground how not-qualified she is — however except for her competence in high-pressure conditions, that work expertise has had little impact on her. We’re advised Rex likes to social gathering, however that’s restricted to some healthful nights out with pals. She’s a sensible lady, a beneficiant buddy, a sort daughter, and if she’s not precisely certified to be at NASA, she appears in a position to simply overcome all of the challenges there.
In different phrases, Rex will get brief shrift as a personality, a disgrace for an actress of Roberts’s explicit abilities. When the second requires her to offer a rousing speech of encouragement, it’s stuffed with obscure platitudes that any kindergarten trainer might spit out, somewhat than hilarious Rexisms. (Her solely catchphrase appears to be “dude.”) By the top, we all know wrestling alligators gave her the talents to dislodge some house particles, but it surely appears like an afterthought.
The movie ends with truisms about making the large leap and by no means giving up, which feels mildly incongruent with the plot itself. That doesn’t imply “House Cadet” is unwatchable, but it surely’s the form of film that makes you wish to return and revisit the higher variations. Comedy relies upon upon sharply rendered quirks and absurdly particular bits that hold you chuckling. With out that, “House Cadet” is much less a comedy than a dream of 1.
House Cadet
Rated PG-13 for some off-color jokes and some swear phrases. Operating time: 1 hour 50 minutes. Watch on Prime Video.
