''The Preppie Connection'' is a 2015

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

film co-written and directed by Joseph Castelo, based on the infamous 1984 incident where

Choate Rosemary Hall Choate Rosemary Hall ( ) is a Independent school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational, College-preparatory school, college-preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1890, it took its present na ...

student Derek Oatis, along with a handful of friends, ran a cocaine smuggling operation on the school's campus. The film stars

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

Lucy Fry Lucy Elizabeth Fry (born 14 March 1992) is an Australian actress. She is known for portraying Zoey in '' Lightning Point'', Lyla in '' Mako: Island of Secrets'', and Lissa Dragomir in the film ''Vampire Academy''. Fry was also cast in Hulu's ei ...

Logan Huffman Logan Huffman (born December 22, 1989) is an American actor. He appeared in the 2009 TV series '' V'' and starred in the 2013 film '' Bad Turn Worse''. Personal life Huffman was born in Noblesville, Indiana, where he was the first born of trip ...

, Sam Page,

Jessica Rothe Jessica Ann Rothenberg (born May 28, 1987), known professionally as Jessica Rothe (), is an American actress. After appearing in Independent film, independent films and on stage, her Breakthrough role, breakthrough came with playing Tree Gelbman i ...

, and

Bill Sage William Sage III (born April 3, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for his collaborations with director Hal Hartley. Sage has appeared in more than 90 movies, most notable ''American Psycho'' (2000), '' We Are What We Are'' (2013), '' Every ...

. It had world premiere at the

Hamptons International Film Festival The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October ...

on October 10, 2015. It was released in the United States on March 18, 2016, in select theaters and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

IFC Films Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York City, New York. It is an offshoot of IFC (U.S. TV channel), IFC, owned by AMC Networks. It mainly distributes independent fil ...

Premise

In 1984

Wallingford, Connecticut Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The town is part ...

, a

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

student uses connections to create a drug trafficking network at his school which leads him and his friends into the dangerous world of

drug cartel A drug cartel is a criminal organization composed of independent drug lords who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the illegal drug trade. Drug cartels form with the purpose of controlling the supply of the i ...

Cast

Production

In January 2013, it was announced that

Evan Peters Evan Thomas Peters (born January 20, 1987) is an American actor. He made his acting debut in the 2004 drama film '' Clipping Adam'' and starred in the ABC science fiction series ''Invasion'' from 2005 to 2006. Peters gained wide recognition fo ...

Bella Heathcote Isabella Heathcote (born 27 May 1987) is an Australian actress. Following her film debut in ''Acolytes'' (2008), she had a recurring role as Amanda Fowler on the television soap opera ''Neighbours'' (2009). She gained further recognition for he ...

had been cast in the lead roles of Tobias and Alex respectively, and the project had been written and directed by Joseph Castelo. However, either Peters and Heathcote dropped out or were recast, in July 2014,

was cast in the role of Alexis. The following day, it was announced that

and

had joined the cast of the film.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

took place in New York City from July 21 to August 9, 2014. with production beginning in

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

on August 12, 2014.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on October 10, 2015. It was also screened at the

Mill Valley Film Festival The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) is an annual film festival organized by the California Film Institute. It takes place each October in Mill Valley, California, and welcomes more than 200 filmmakers, representing more than 50 countries, each ...

on October 15, 2015. In December 2015,

acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on March 18, 2016, in select theaters and through

Critical reception

''The Preppie Connection'' received negative reviews from film critics. It holds an 11% approval rating on review aggregator website

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 ...

, based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film holds a rating of 34 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Dennis Harvey of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' gave the film a negative review writing: "Unconvincingly presented in a way that belies the factual basis of a case that won national notoriety at the time, the film will make serviceable small-screen fodder, but lacks the deeper insight or distinguishing directorial style that might have tempted arthouse distributors."

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Preppie Connection, The 2015 films 2015 crime drama films 2010s teen drama films American crime drama films American films based on actual events American independent films American teen drama films Crime drama films based on actual events Films about cocaine Films about the illegal drug trade Films about the upper class Films set in 1984 Films set in Connecticut Films shot in New York City Films shot in Puerto Rico French crime drama films English-language French films French films based on actual events French independent films French teen drama films Teen crime films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s French films English-language crime drama films English-language independent films