New Movie Stamped! Hits Close to Home | Bakersfield Voice
Posted by ThisCatsLegit Saturday, February 28, 2009
Stereotype as defined in the dictionary is a person, who is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image, otherwise known as being labeled, termed, or just plain stamped. As a sophomore in high school I know exactly what it’s like to be stamped. It happens everyday, to the best of us, and high school is always the place were stereotypes are born and bred.
New movie Stamped! portrays what every high school student goes through, and I was invited to attend the Sneak Preview of this inspiring and hilarious movie at the Fox Theater.There are so many things that make this movie extra special, the fact that it was filmed right here in Bakersfield, on the campus of Frontier High, the fact that one of Frontier’s very own Bryce Hatch wrote and directed the movie, and the fact that this movie has to be the best independent film I have ever seen.
Stamped! is about five teenage high school students who make-up a Saturday state mandated test, teenage “misfit prankster”, Mitchell (Brian Kubach) annoys and takes apart Tori (Lindze Letherman) a “stuck up cheerleader”, Cody (Matt Thompson) a “dumb jock”, DeShawn (G. Lane Hillman) a “smart homeboy”, and Vanessa (Kaitlynn Lerma) a “quiet Latina”. After giving them a bad time about their roles and so called stereotypes in life they begin to understand they have more in common than they think. Mitchell and his classroom shenanigans and Jim Carey facial expressions really bring the humor front and center.
This movie touches on the racial and social divides at every school. Mitchell says later in the movie, “you may think I’m a freak but you don’t know me.”
As the movie goes on all five teenagers gradually become closer than ever before, you learn Mitchell lives in a foster home, and hides his broken household with loud and obnoxious behavior. Vanessa is in America illegally, and takes shelter in her quiet and shy behavior. Cody is just a “big baby that does what ever daddy tells him” as described by DeShawn who loves comic books and doesn’t express who he truly is to his friends. My favorite quote of the night spoken by Cody to DeShawn, “man your just as white as I am, or maybe I’m just as black as you—it doesn’t matter we’re brothers.”
What people should get from Stamped! is a chaotic journey through the harsh realities of teenage life, and that just because someone is labeled as the skater, nerd, ADHD kid, stuck-up, or jock, that’s not who they are—you don’t know them unless you break down the racial divide.
Read the entire article on the Bakersfield Voice website HERE.