Paramount+ Movie Honor Society Is A Fresh Take On High School And The Sometimes Vicious Road To Scholarship Glory

Gaten Matarazzo (L) as Michael Dipnicky and Angourie Rice as Honor Rose in Paramount+’s Honor Society. All photos courtesy of IMDb

Directed by Oran Zegman and written by David A. Goodman, the film revolves around Honor Rose and her bid for Harvard scholarship gold. For her whole high school career, she has been meticulously planning her escape from small-town life and doesn’t care who she has to step on or manipulate to make it happen. That is until she befriends Michael Dipnicky who ends up changing her world forever.

But not like you think. High school is brutal but Honor? She’s got a plan for that.

With Senior midterms just days away, Honor finds out from her lecherous guidance counselor Mr. Calvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) that although she has made sure that her academic record is nearly spot-free, her extracurricular activities are noteworthy, and that all the kissing-up to Mr. Calvin she has been doing for the past four years has only earned her a place in the top four students who Mr. Calvin is considering giving a recommendation for a scholarship to Harvard. Honor knows who her competition is (that would be Michael Dipnicky, Travis Biggins, and Kennedy Smith) and goes about very carefully sabotaging their ambitions by getting them so sidetracked with extra drama in their lives that their grades slip and they blow the midterm while Honor, true to form, aces her midterm and gets that recommendation.

While it sounded like a good idea at the time, things begin to go sideways when as soon as she begins the distraction plan. The students whose grades start to falter because they’re too busy doing after-school activities, begin to love what they’re doing and don’t care about their lower GPA which makes Honor feel things she isn’t used to. Good things, friendship and genuinely caring about other people things. However Honor has a goal and with two people down that just leaves Michael, a bullied nerd with few friends whose GPA is higher than Honors and whose ambitions of getting out of their small town are just as strong. Honor decides seduction is the best way to go, completely unaware that Michael is playing her as well and it all becomes one awful yet satisfying backstabbing mess. When the dust clears the coveted scholarship goes to someone who deserves it the most, Honor begins to plan a future with people she genuinely cares about, and Michael and Mr. Calvin learn they have a lot in common. They’re both creeps.

The film is easy and fun to watch with a lot of fourth wall moments of Honor staring into the camera explaining her next move(s) and the motive behind them. The cinematography is no frills but interesting and engaging, the character interactions are believable, the music score is wide-ranging and well-paced with the storyline, and is absolutely worth your time. Honor Society is available to stream right here on Paramount+.