''Stay Cool'' is a 2009 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Michael Polish Mark Polish and Michael Polish (born October 30, 1970), known informally as the Polish brothers, are American twin screenwriters and film producers. Michael usually directs their films, and Mark often has an acting role. Life The Polish brothe ...

(credited as Ted Smith), and written by

Mark Polish Mark Polish and Michael Polish (born October 30, 1970), known informally as the Polish brothers, are American twin screenwriters and film producers. Michael usually directs their films, and Mark often has an acting role. Life The Polish brothe ...

. The film stars

Winona Ryder Winona Laura Horowitz (born October 29, 1971), professionally known as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Originally playing quirky roles, she rose to prominence for her more diverse performances in various genres in the 1990s. She has recei ...

, Mark Polish,

Hilary Duff Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including seven Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, four Teen Choice Awards and two Young Artist Awards. She began her act ...

Sean Astin Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in ''Rudy'' (1993), Doug ...

Josh Holloway Josh Lee Holloway (born July 20, 1969) is an American actor best known for his roles as James "Sawyer" Ford on the television show ''Lost'' and as Will Bowman on the science fiction drama ''Colony''. Most recently he had a recurring role in sea ...

Jon Cryer Jonathan Niven Cryer (born April 16, 1965) is an American actor, writer, director and producer. Born into a show business family, he made his motion picture debut as a teenage photographer in the 1984 romantic comedy ''No Small Affair''; his bre ...

, and

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...

. The film premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and released theatrically in 2011. Henry McCarthy, a successful author, is invited back to his old high school to give the commencement address for the class 19 years after his. He finally has to face his past demons to be able to move on as a person and a writer.

Cast

as Henry McCarthy *

as Scarlet Smith *

as Shasta O' Neil *

as Wino *

Max Thieriot Maximillion Drake Thieriot (; born October 14, 1988) is an American actor and director. He made his acting debut in the 2004 adventure comedy film ''Catch That Kid''. Thieriot has since appeared in the action comedy '' The Pacifier'' (2005), the ...

as Luke *

as Big Girl *

as Principal Marshall *

as Javier * Marc Blucas as Brad Nelson *

Frances Conroy Frances Hardman Conroy is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth Fisher on the television series '' Six Feet Under'' (2001–2005), for which she won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and received four Pr ...

as Mrs. Looch

Production

''Stay Cool'' was filmed between July and September 2008 in Santa Clarita, Saugus and Valencia (California).

Release

A film festival version of ''Stay Cool'' was shown at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

on April 23, 2009 and received favorable reviews. It was presented under the category for "World Narrative Film Festival". On the official Tribeca Film Festival it was described as a film that "...reminds us that time certainly does fly and old flames are hard to put out." A version of the film was also premiered in May 2010 at the

Marché du Film The ''Marché du Film'' (french for "Film Market") is one of the largest film markets in the world.Marc ...

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

(France). It had a September 16, 2011 theatrical release in the United States.

Reception

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

ranked the film #5 on the "Top 10 Movies That Will Have You Screaming 'Oh My God!'" calling it "the most adult-minded movie on this list". On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has a rating of 14% based on reviews from 7 critics. Robert Abele of the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

wrote: "Attempts to pay homage to the '80s oeuvre of filmmaker John Hughes, but its singular lack of emotional logic, charm and humor bring to mind a couple of hours in detention instead."

References

External links

* * {{Michael Polish 2009 films 2000s English-language films 2009 comedy films American comedy films Films directed by Michael Polish American independent films 2009 independent films 2000s American films