The Wise Kids

2011

1h 35m

Drama

LGBTQ+

List

100%

12 Reviews

Tomatometer

67%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Teens navigate an uncertain future as they prepare to enter college.

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Audience Member

A rough-cut gem. Wonderful characters and acting; no simple answers to challenging questions. So worth watching, and so unlikely to be watched by so many. I'll have to watch it again, because it feels like there are many layers to enjoy ...

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Well. I was riveted. The setting in an almost hyper-real US suburban setting, a kind of evangelical heaven on earth. But in this setting are real emotions, real people, beautifully portrayed by brilliant actors. It is both gently poignant and funny, with the delightfully "gay" ending with the Christmas tableau.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is a movie about Christian kids in the last year of high school. Normally, I'd see that sentence and wince. Rather, I found a genuinely caring and realistic movie about young adults dealing with real issues of faith, loss of faith, and sexuality, not just prop pieces in a candy-ass come to Jesus glory glory story. In contravention of Christian conventions, one of the characters is a young homosexual sincere in his belief and comfortable in his skin with a loving father. A young woman grapples with losing her faith, another young woman is desperate to keep her faith in the face of challenges from her best friends. The acting is quite good, the direction firm. Johnny C sez check it out - you might be very pleasantly surprised.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

If you liked Stephen Cone's 'Princess Cyd' then you'll also like this earlier film of his. The acting is very solid and the premise is relatable, but i felt like the filmed wimped out a bit. There are two or three story threads where i was crying out for more drama, more conflict, but it didn't happen, and ultimately the ending was a bit limp. That said, it's very watchable and worth seeing.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A beautiful, wonderful dive into the minds of three young adults, two of which are seeking to branch out from their traditional upbringings. This entire film was a reminder of the challenges I faced growing up, and that was what made it so powerful to me. The actress playing Brea did a phenomenal job portraying her own excommunication.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Solid low-budget indie film. While it doesn't have the technical filmmaking craft of bigger budget films, it has a sincere and at moments heartfelt story, pushing the coming-of-age genre in new directions.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

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Stephen Cone

Director

Molly Kunz

Brea

Allison Torem

Laura

Tyler Ross

Tim

Stephen Cone

Austin

Cliff Chamberlain

Dylan

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Chicago indie Stephen Cone took a quantum leap forward with this moving 2011 drama about a Christian youth group in small-town South Carolina.

Mar 23, 2012

Full Review

Stephen Holden

New York Times

"The Wise Kids" is a guileless exploration of the growing pains of sheltered innocents whose reticence and sincerity evoke 1950s small-town values.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 15, 2012

Full Review

Diego Semerene

Slant Magazine

Hovering over the narrative is the fear of the domino effect that change can enact, the dread that one person's "queerness" may perhaps expose everyone else's.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 15, 2012

Full Review

Bedatri D. Choudhury

Screen Slate

Cone is a master of restraint as his storytelling always manages to portray extremely emotional moments without falling onto the crutches of overt melodrama...

Sep 18, 2020

Full Review

David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

The Wise Kids straddles the uneasy divide between love and faith.

Jun 9, 2020

Full Review

Eve Tushnet

First Things

This is a film with unusual imaginative generosity.

Aug 6, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

Teens navigate an uncertain future as they prepare to enter college.

Director: Stephen Cone
Screenwriter: Stephen Cone
Production Co: Cone Arts
Genre: Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 24, 2016
Runtime: 1h 35m

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