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| Mitch (Nate Rubin) in Wuss. |
By Don Simpson
Meet Mitch (Nate Rubin), a meek and measly twerp of a high school English teacher (technically, a substitute with a long-term assignment) who is known by some, including Assistant Principal, Wally Combs (Alex Karpovsky), as “Little Bitch”. Mitch allows himself to be teased, ridiculed and slapped around by every living being with whom he comes into contact, no matter their age or gender. He is an aspiring fiction writer who plays D&D (as in Dungeons and Dragons) with his high school friends and still lives at home with his mom and queen bitch of a sister (Jennifer Sipes). It is as if high school never ended for Mitch. Once a wuss, always a wuss.
Judging from Mitch’s very first English II class, it is quite obvious that the students will dictate the rules of the classroom, with the school thug Re-up (Ryan Anderson) leading the wolf pack. Mitch makes fast enemies with Re-up and embarrassingly wears a plethora of scars and bruises to prove it. Nonetheless, Mitch plows onward with his classes, discussing On the Beach, Dune, and the Bible (the first science fiction novel?). Enter Maddie (Alicia Anthony), a marching band student. She takes a liking to Mitch and uses her remarkably powerful influence around school to protect him.
Though writer-director Clay Liford asserts that Wuss is not intended to carry any social or political significance, it paints a sharp critique of how high schools have evolved, with their metal detectors and overly “mature” student population. On paper, the overall plot seems to be torn straight from a Hollywood script, but Liford unearths a profound intensity that lends Wuss a uniquely dire sense of realism, thanks to strong performances by Rubin and Anthony. While some of the supporting cast appear as purposefully clownish stereotypes, the characters of Mitch and Maddie never once veer away from being incredibly realistic…even as they smoke dope together while listening to the Alan Parson’s Project.
Typically, cinema does not provide us with a wuss who is as endearing as Mitch; they are usually annoyingly stupid characters with few redeeming qualities. But Mitch seems like a perfectly nice guy. He is not stupid and apparently he is not a wuss by choice. Mitch’s supreme wussiness seems to be in his blood or maybe his genes — there is no hope for him to ever escape it.
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