The Utopian Society (2003)

Directed by: John P. Aguirre | 93 minutes | comedy | Actors: Austin Nichols, Sam Doumit, Malin Akerman, Mat Hostetler, Kelvin Yu, Kristen Ariza, Robert Romanus, Matt Mauser

Take a few stereotypical students, cram them together semi-randomly with a writing assignment, and see what happens. What does this remind of? Correct: ‘The Breakfast Club’ (1985), in which director John Hughes, who died in 2009, paints an honest and realistic portrait of five very different teenagers who discover that their prejudices about each other are not always justified. And that there is always more behind an image than you might wish for. ‘The Utopian Society’ tries to achieve the same, but is considerably less successful in doing so.

The film brings about the same group of stereotypical students, but gives it a slightly different interpretation. In addition, ‘The Utopian Society’ works with six people instead of five, resulting in continuous pairings and the group dynamics disappearing into the background. The characters in a row: Justin (the freebooter), Nera (the alto), Tanci (the popular girl), Caleb (the rich kid), Ken (the student) and Aaliyah (the sportsman). The assignment that condemned them to each other: “Write an essay together about the perfect society, or ‘the utopian society’.” Not everyone takes the assignment seriously from the start, so the group only has one evening left to bring it to a successful conclusion.

The idea of ​​using this particular writing assignment as a stepping stone for young people to think about their place in society and how they interact with others is absolutely striking. The group soon discovers that everyone has a different idea of ​​what the ideal society would be. In the end, though, the assignment doesn’t really matter that much. What director John P. Aguirre seems particularly interested in is how the students interact with each other. For this, he invariably uses the design that two people separate themselves from the others in order to discuss (intimate) matters with each other. This seems to work fine at first, but as the film progresses it becomes more and more made up. Also the dialogues, which are quite striking in themselves, don’t really form a whole. The film has become a succession of short scenes in which a clear development is lacking. In addition, with too many dialogues, the importance is underlined by a sugary sweet soundtrack. Involuntarily, this trick is reminiscent of the television series ‘South Park’, in which such a tune is also set under the most playful morals. Aguirre sells himself and therefore his audience too short.

Ultimately, ‘The Utopian Society’ is an amalgam of interesting observations about young people in America, but the film as a whole falls short. For every good scene there is a considerably lesser one. The acting is pretty strong across the board. It’s just a shame that the script that the young actors (including a novice Malin Akerman) had to work with is so shaky. The fact that the film is promoted as a comedy is also not very useful. Because while there are definitely good jokes in it, it’s more of a comedic drama. ‘The Utopian Society’ is full of good intentions, but lacks the finesse and craftsmanship to convey them well.