Wolfe Video's The Wise Kids On Jan. 8

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Filmmaker Stephen Cone’s crossover film, The Wise Kids, will be the first film released on DVD from Wolfe Video to start the New Year.  The street date is Jan. 8.

When you hear “high school seniors” and “sexuality,” the mind just naturally drifts towards drugs, sex, booze and party, party, party … the American Pie sort of thing. 

But The Wise Kids is nothing like that, which is, in a word: refreshing.  The same plot over and over again about teen shenanigans, no matter how funny, does tend to give off that old “been there, done that” vibe.  

It is different in that we are introduced to three high school friends living in Charleston, South Carolina — Tim (Tyler Ross — Nate & Margaret, Little Men), Brea (Molly Kunz — The Penny) and Laura (newcomer Allison Torem) — who are about to take the next big step … life after high school.  

They go to church.  They think and have conversations about what waits ahead.  And, they have to get through the revelation that Tim is, well, gay.  That’s the big deal; the crisis of the moment.   

The South, gay and kids that actually go to church … a nice package of subjects that would seem to be ripe targets for lesser filmmakers to mock or characterized with straw men, but Cone (In Memoriam, The Christians, etc.), who wrote and directed, makes his characters real and their story both believable and interesting.  Engaging.

These three friends have conversations.  They talk.  They question.  Things are at odds with what they’ve come to believe, but they get through it.  

John Sayles writes characters three, even four deep, in his films.  That’s what Cone does here — minor characters that would be “throwaways,” cardboard or space fillers are brought to life; they are fully formed — even if on the screen for just a few moments — and they are never what we expect.

As a result, this indie film production has pulled in a ton of film festival awards, including the Outfest Grand Jury Awards for Outstanding Screenplay and Outstanding Narrative Feature Film, plus the Jury Award for Best Film at Atlanta’s Out on Film and more.

Bonus features on the DVD release for The Wise Kids include a behind-the-scenes featurette.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: http://www.dvdreleasereport.com/