Boy Genius

Boy Genius
Image source: Google

Rating: 2/5

Duration: 1 hr 33 mins

Director: Bridget Stokes

Genre: Comedy

Release Date: 06.09.2019

Star Cast: Tracie Thoms, Rita Wilson, Miles Brown, Nora Dunn, Skylan Brooks, Zach Gilford, Arden Myrin, Ravi Patel, Arabella Monae, Jackson Pace, Christian Valderrama, India Everett, Michael Paul Chan, Patrika Darbo, Bebe Wood, Matthew Josten

Plot: In the movie Boy Genius, Emmett (Miles Brown) is a 12 years old award-winning student at Heart High School. Although, the boy is always appreciated for his brilliant performance in academics, yet he does not possess many friends. Emmett is accompanied to school by his elder brother, Luke (Skylan Brooks), who is a brilliant visual artist. He happens to have a crush on Tonya (Arabella Monae), who is older than him. When an array of thefts is experienced by both students as well as teachers, Principle Ally (Nora Dunn) puts the allegations on Luke and convinces the single mother (Tracie Thoms) of the boy to send him to a boarding school. To prove the innocence of Luke and make his family stay united, Emmett joins hand with his tutor Mary (Rita Wilson), who also happens to be a thriller, crime novelist, for solving the mystery behind the robberies of Heart High School.  

Review: The child-prodigy movie, Boy Genius is quite funny and familiar enough to appeal to the younger audience, but does not really stand out as its primary character does. The precocious Emmett played by Miles Brown and the eccentric Mary played by Rita Wilson share a very beautiful intergenerational friendship while they try to make use of her knowledge in crime and his intelligent brains for finding the actual culprit. The movie carries a funny scene in which Mary enters into a school event and starts playing “Hip Hop Hooray” of Naughty by Nature so that Emmett can get more time for investigating the bedroom of a classmate. Not many movies showcase a multigenerational bond of friendship like Boy Genius, so it is good to watch Emmett learning things from Mary.

Boy Genius has a quite thin plot, but the makers of the film have used themes and some substantive conversations in the film. It is shown that the dead father of Emmett and Luke, who was even a very intelligent person, suffered from a mental condition, and Emmett starts worrying that he might end up following the footsteps of his father. The script of the movie revolves around Emmett’s crush for quite some time and its return to crime investigation seems somewhat anti-climatic.

Overall, it can be said that, with its powerful cast, Bridget Stokes’s Boy Genius can be a good pick for the teenagers.