''Stay Cool'' is a 2009 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Michael Polish Mark Polish and Michael Polish (born October 30, 1970), known informally as the Polish brothers, are American twin filmmakers. Michael usually directs their films, and Mark often has an acting role. Early lives The Polish brothers were born in ...

(credited as Ted Smith), and written by Mark Polish. The film stars

Winona Ryder Winona Laura Horowitz (born ), known professionally as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Having come to attention playing quirky characters in the late 1980s, she achieved success with her more dramatic performances in the 1990s. Ryder's L ...

, Polish,

Hilary Duff Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, singer, author and businesswoman. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Hilary Duff, various accolades, including a World Music Awards, World Mus ...

, Sean Astin,

Josh Holloway Joshua Lee Holloway (born July 20, 1969) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as James "Sawyer" Ford on the ABC television show '' Lost'' (2004–2010) as Will Bowman on the USA Network science fiction drama ''Colony'' (2016� ...

Jon Cryer Jonathan Niven Cryer (born April 16, 1965) is an American actor. Born into a show business family, he made his film debut with a lead role in ''No Small Affair'' (1984); his breakout role was as Duckie in the John Hughes (filmmaker), John Hughe ...

, and

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...

. 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

* Mark Polish as Henry McCarthy *

as Scarlet Smith *

as Shasta O' Neil *

as Wino * Max Thieriot as Luke * Sean Astin as Big Girl *

as Principal Marshall *

as Javier *

Marc Blucas Marcus Paul Blucas (; born January 11, 1972) is an American actor. Prior to his acting career, he played college basketball with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. He had his first starring role as soldier and love interest Riley Finn on the WB su ...

as Brad Nelson *

Frances Conroy Frances Hardman Conroy (born March 15, 1953) 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, a ...

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 Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

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 of

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) 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 Internatio ...

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

Reception

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

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 aggregator, 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 ...

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

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

wrote: "Attempts to pay homage to the '80s oeuvre of filmmaker

John Hughes John Hughes may refer to: Arts and Entertainment Literature *John Hughes (poet) (1677–1720), English poet *John Hughes (1790–1857), English author *John Ceiriog Hughes (1832–1887), Welsh poet *John Hughes (writer) (born 1961), Australian au ...

, 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 English-language comedy films English-language independent films