SXSW Film Review: Rita Moreno In ‘The Prank’

deadline.com:

If you go to see this, The Prank’s on you.Unspeakably lame in every department—writing, directing, acting and intent—this immature little goof on a high school murder mystery is notable only for the presence of Rita Moreno, looking and sounding some twenty years younger than her actual 90 as a sinister school teacher who should have retired and abandoned her wicked ways while she was still ahead.

Absurdly plotted and handicapped by two massively unappealing lead teen characters, this is a very unlikely entry in any film festival, but it nonetheless did debut at South by Southwest.None of Maureen Bharoocha’s three previous films over the past seven years—Fatal Flip, I Am Watching You and the decently reviewed Golden Arm—has served to put her firmly on the map, and matters are not bound to change due to the dim-witted plot, lame dialogue and thoroughly obnoxious characters one is forced to tolerate in the screenplay by Rebecca Flinn-White and Zak White.On the most fundamental levels of credibility, the script is just silly and in no way passes muster.

Moreno’s Mrs. Wheeler, a stern physics teacher who has ruled the roost for 40 years, one day abruptly announces that, as she’s detected a cheater in her class, none of her twenty AP students will be passed unless the miscreant is found.

But serious scholar Ben (Connor Kalopsis) barely has time to work up a fury about this before his best bud Mei (Ramona Young) comes out with charge that Mrs.