o one ever said high school wasn't hell, especially when you're a geek who lives in Cloverdale, Ind. In fact, Brendan Willy (Zuckerman) is such a geek that he loses a school election to a dog. He believes he's geeky because his twin sister got all the cool genes, which allows her to do cool things
like sit at the cool kids' table during lunch and get invited to the cool kids' parties.
However, Brendan does get to hang out with his equally geeky friend Tom (Noel Fisher), and they usually embrace their uncoolness by doing things like running the wrong way down escalators. That is, until Brendan runs into Twyla Day (Caroline Elliott), a beautiful supermodel/actress type who impresses even the coolest kids in school. Twyla is about to have a big going-away party at the local country club, and Brendan is sure he won't get invited. In fact, he didn't even know Cloverdale had a country club.
While Brendan pines for Twyla, the Devil's representative, Mr. Five (Townsend), has problems of his own. He's the local Tempter, and central Indiana has proven to be a bad territory for talking people into selling their souls. The Devil has given Five one last chance to get a signed contract—or else. To check on his progress, the Devil sends his girlfriend, Babylonia (Fairchild), along to see how Five is doing.
With time running out, Mr. Five runs into Brendan, and he realizes this may be his one chance to avoid burning in hell forever. Brendan suddenly is transformed into the coolest kid in school. To keep his cool-kid status, all Brendan has to do is sign one little contract. Brendan realizes that doing
business with Mr. Five is a chancy thing, but they work out a one-day free trial. Now all Mr. Five has to do is avoid Babylonia while Brendan explores the world of being cool. There's only one problem. Twyla doesn't like cool guys anymore, and Brendan is about to discover that a deal with the Devil always has a catch.
Fire and brimstone without any heat
Showtime's I Was a Teenage Faust is a perfectly light and breezy film with appealing actors and one big problem. It's not funny. Not even a little bit. It's a shame, considering that all the actors involved are capable of delivering funny performances.
The main culprit is Thom Eberhardt's script, which moves the action along nicely but can't manage to bring any laughs to the material as the story splits in two different directions that end up being at odds with one another. While the story about Brendan works overall, the second story about Mr. Five
is so broadly written and played that it feels like it's part of a different movie. The adult actors have all been better in other roles, and Townsend and Fairchild end up looking like caricatures of themselves.
What does work for I Was a Teenage Faust is the acting by those playing teenagers. There's a genuine sweetness about the way Zuckerman as Brendan, Elliott as Twyla and Fisher as Tom play their roles, and the material gives them room to explore the teen tragedy of being different. Their story is
at the heart of Teenage Faust, and they make it worth watching.
