Hairbrained

Name: Hairbrained
Director: Billy Kent
Released: 2013

Synopsis

A fourteen-year-old genius gets rejected by Harvard and ends up at a much lower ranked school where he makes friends with a mature student.

70
The Dissolve
Kent’s photography is so energetic, and the soundtrack is so sprightly—it features jagged tunes from beloved cult act The Feelies, as well as other, less familiar indie bands—that the thinness of the characterization slips by almost unnoticed.
70
Village Voice
Billy Kent's charming HairBrained comes from a long legacy of collegiate comedies but still finds its own identity.
60
The Hollywood Reporter
A likeable if familiar underdog tale.
50
The New York Times
Unfortunately, the movie lacks strong enough players to fill in subtext to Mr. Kent’s formulaic setups, and the story flounders once Ms. Posey is out of the picture.
50
Variety
The film doesn’t quite have the verve or originality to capitalize on its spasmodic absurdist impulses, leaving the whole in a rather innocuous middle ground despite all efforts at quirkiness.
40
New York Daily News
Early potential fizzles away too quickly in this underachieving buddy comedy, which just barely skids along on the charm of its co-stars.
25
Observer
It’s nice to see a movie about kids that extols the virtues of intelligence over sex, sports, bad music, ugly clothes and tattoos, but aside from some nice autumnal shots of Ivy League college campuses, there’s nothing in HairBrained to sustain much interest.
25
RogerEbert.com
HairBrained is painfully contrived and self-consciously quirky from the word go.