The Worst Film Ever

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

"Candy Jar" tells the story of two highschool students, Bennett and Lona, who are on the debate team and have practically no social life. They are both very driven characters who believe in working hard to achieve their goals. They share a love of debate and of finding the facts, but yet relentlessly hate each other after years of knowing each other. At the beginning, it can become tedious since you don't quite understand why they dislike each other so much. However, the story develops in a mature and sensitive coming of age story that explores Bennett and Lona's finding their own personalities out of the pressure of debate and school as well as their mothers - and the romance is a sweet touch. I highly recommend it.

ESPECIALLY if you competed at the State or National level like these kids.

Similar to many Netflix original films, the best value in this is laughing at it. The show is not funny when it try's to be. Most of the humor seems to be from in-jokes that debate students and over-achievers understand, and even from those standpoints it is not at all amusing. Also, anyone who understands college admissions at all will see the false reality of the way these kids decide to handle their college admissions and the result of their college admission plans. A little research on the writer of this show gives a lot of tells. It is a self-indulgent nightmare made by a debate-star who is not only totally detached from the general realities of college admissions, but as well as the realities of debaters and over-achieving students. Would not recommend as a drama, comedy, or coming of age film. Would recommend as a study in terrible film and for some unintended humor. Not to mention, the title is symbolically, metaphorically, and literally insignificant and non-impactful to the story.

Lona and Bennett have been competing since kindergarten, maybe egged by their mothers who seem to have some issues that need to be resolved. And now college is beckoning them - Havard - or Yale - or not. Partly to look good on their CVs they are in the school debate club. But here everything gets very strange as competitive debating seems to have degenerated into a kind of bizarre speed talking contest in which points of evidence are made so fast that scarcely anyone understands.Lona and Bennett are in some ways hugely similar and in others diametrically opposed so boy - girl, black - white, but both with single mothers, both geeks, bookworms, loners, and both very much attached to Kathy, a school counselor whose room is filled with the candy jars that give the film its title.It's an unusual idea but it makes the film fresh and different. For me, the nonsensical debating process was a bit of a distraction, but maybe the very fact that we don't understand what they're struggling to achieve, let alone the actual arguments they make, maybe that helps us focus on them and how they matter more.