Try Harder to See Try Harder! At the MKE Film Festival This Year
By Olivia Cagle, junior at Homestead High School
Oh, high school. A land of late-night parties and risqué games of truth or dare, right? Wrong. Well, for me at least. All this time I’ve been watching dreamy coming-of-age films filled with teens living whimsical lives as I watch in my cat patterned pajama pants while sipping sparkling grape juice from a wine glass like I’m the crazy cat-lady next door.
That’s when Try Harder!, a documentary shown under the Teen Screen Program at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, caught my attention. It follows a group of students at Lowell High School, the number one high school in San Francisco, as they go through the rigorous college admissions process.
I first saw Try Harder! at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. I noticed that there were still tickets left, and I wanted to say that I had been to Sundance, so I picked Try Harder!. I bought my ticket, along with some stickers to flaunt, and the rest is history.
I knew right as the Teen Screen Selection Committee program began that this film would be right at home among other teen-centered flicks, so I couldn’t help but recommend it. It took all the parts about high school that I came to love: busy schedules, awkward school dances, that omnipresent buzz of competitiveness, and articulated it so clearly that I felt like I went to school with the subjects by the end of the film.
In short, this film was for me, and I think it can be for you, too.
It’ll have you cringing at the loveable Alan dabbing as he receives college admissions letters and hip thrusting alone on the dance floor, or crying as helicopter parents finally send their children away to college. You may even find your mouth hanging open as students say things such as “you get used to feeling mediocre” or “I need to go to one of the top twenty colleges or else I’m not gonna be doing anything significant” with a dulled confidence.
I once found myself thinking the same way as Shea, who spoke the aforementioned quote about being significant. I, too, owned a Stanford University sweatshirt my freshman year and let it collect dust, just like Lowell students.
Still from Try Harder!
The film’s universal relevance on any level makes it so captivating, and although the focus was the specific pressure Lowell students underwent, it enthralls audiences on many fronts. It hands teachers the looking glass into upperclassmen’s mindsets as they advance closer to college, and it reminds other students of a similar hard-working nature that we aren’t alone in this hell-hole that is academia- and that there’s a way to survive through it.
The theme that Try Harder! perpetuates through relatable situational footage is the icing on the cake, however, the details are the cherry on top.
During my second watch, I began to realize how detail-oriented this film was, and how each close up became an aggregate to a well-oiled-Sundance-machine.
A few of my favorite details came from the nonchalant aspects of Lowell student life. For example, students were seen taking an AP Physics exam using pens. To the naked eye, this seems like an aesthetic choice, but to a student, this means more.
High schoolers know full well that doing math with a pen is a huge mistake, unless you are sure you won’t make any errors. In that case, using a pen to do math is a sign of confidence in one’s work and faith that they won’t need an eraser. That being said, you will never see me doing math in pen. Ever. Much less on an AP Physics exam. Yeah, no way.
Still from Try Harder!
Students are also seen numerous times on camera wearing shirts with logos like Quora, a Q&A website, or Bing, a web browser. I found this hilarious, because be honest, who else would wear this but a teen who only applied to the top 20 colleges in the country and who spends their free time studying physics until three in the morning?
This film encompassed the high school experience I thought I had, and as the credits rolled, I understood that I have it much better than I previously thought. I mean, my school doesn’t even rank its students, while Lowell produces “AP machines”. It really served as a reminder to the Teen Screen Selection Committee and I that we aren’t the only ones experiencing anxiety over grades, and a little competitive spirit never hurt anyone.
Try Harder! is such a roller coaster ride of anxiety, sadness, nostalgia, and comedy that it is a must watch for this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival. It made me regret ever doing math in pen, it reminded me that I need to get my A- in physics to an A, and it helped me embrace my extra-curricular loving self. So snuggle up on the couch in your quirky pajamas with some sparkling grape juice like I did and watch Try Harder! here.
Olivia Cagle is a junior at Homestead High School, and a prized member of our Teen Screen Programming Committee. Click the incredible Teen Screen poster (designed by the committee themselves!) below to check out the entire slate of films, including Try Harder!, they hand-selected for #MFF2021.
Posted by: Tom Fuchs