Three O’Clock High

Directed by Phil Joanou, Three O’Clock High follows high schooler Jerry Mitchell (Casey Siemaszko) as he runs afoul of a tough new student (Richard Tyson’s Buddy Revell) and subsequently spends the rest of the day preparing for their after-school fight. Filmmaker Joanou, armed with Richard Christian Matheson and Thomas Szollosi’s screenplay, delivers a stylish, briskly-paced comedy that benefits from its appealing premise and raft of above-average performances, as, in terms of the latter, Siemaszko offers up an entertaining (and sympathetic) lead performance that’s matched by such eclectic periphery players as Anne Ryan, Philip Baker Hall, Mitch Pileggi, and Jeffrey Tambor. And while the picture admittedly does suffer from a small handful of lulls, including a visit with John P. Ryan’s principal that seems to go on just a little too long, Three O’Clock High builds towards a stirring and impressively enthralling climax that packs a far more viscerally-exciting punch than one might’ve anticipated – with the thoroughly satisfying bent of this stretch ensuring that the picture ends on a seriously positive note and, ultimately, confirming its place as a top-tier ’80s teen movie.

***1/2 out of ****