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Why so much hype?

Simply Perfect

A Masterpiece!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I believe this was shown on Cartoon Network in the USA and its aimed at the tweenage audience that the Disney channels do well aiming at.Tommy seems to be a perennial bullying victim at High School but his tormentor Matt under the threat of suspension befriends him and joins him to enter a cooking contest where Tommy could earn enough money to save his grandmother's pizza shop.Matt's brother Kyle is cooking a deal where the pizza shop is part of a redevelopment plan and gets his brother, Matt to sabotage the competition. However it seems Matt and Tommy might have bonded but Tommy's friend Sarah is suspicious.The is a lot of double dealing going on in the plot and some of the characters are flawed so its not all black and white but my word this film is giving mixed messages.The High School needs to be closed down given how much bullying goes on there, it needed to build its own hospital wing to treat its victims.At the end of the film one of the characters who has cynically sabotaged, hurt people, manipulated people seemed to have faced no consequences of his actions. A strange outcome for film with an anti bullying message.Some of the acting is fine, some of its broad. Its a low budget film but the script lacks polish and it would had been more focused if he Disney channel had made it.

You'll find a number of familiar faces from the small screen in the film Contest which was made as part of an anti-bullying initiative. It's a decent effort, but sad to say the main reason, the main taunt that bullies use was never in the film. That is that pejorative beginning with the letter "F" referring to sexual orientation. That in itself makes this an inferior product.In this film young Danny Flaherty is the target of the jocks in his high school specifically the swim team who love to toss him in the pool as he can't swim. The leader of the bullying and the swim team is Kenton Duty.However one day Duty is caught in the act and is given a choice, expulsion and curtailment of his athletic activities or befriend Flaherty and head an anti-bullying initiative. Duty calls and Duty chooses.But Kenton is raised by older brother Kyle Dean Massey who has his own reasons for wanting this to fail. Flaherty's grandmother who raises him owns a pizzeria that someone wants her out of. It's where Flaherty has learned to cook and he's entered a cooking contest where the winner receives $50,000.00 and TV show entitled TV chef. Flaherty has a team of four for the contest and Duty is part of his team.It goes without saying that when the two are thrown together even though Kenton is initially thinking of sabotaging Flaherty's efforts, eventually he and Flaherty bond in a unique way.What can you say about a film that totally ignores the chief reason for bullying in school, real or perceived gayness. Maybe had Flaherty been made a gay character this film might have had some bite to it. But I suspect the producers didn't want to hear from religious right.Contest, a sincere but very weak film.

Contest is an entertaining and satisfying look into the bully and the bullied. The rolls of, and the exchanges between characters are eye-opening portrayals of everyday people that I knew growing up. I think everyone knows and can identify with a character in the story that represents the feelings they had as a youth or adolescent... along with the awkward, confusing yet often beautiful emotions that they conjure. I wish this movie were around when my kids were younger, as I feel they could have benefited from seeing it. If you have teenagers, try to get this in front of them. It would be helpful, I believe, to show this film on a class-wide or school-wide level so kids could watch it together.

Warning: SpoilersWith everything Matt's brother and legal guardian did and was behind and responsible for, the movie should not have ended like it did.Matt's brother should have been arrested and brought up on charges and faced a judge in court. We've got breaking and entering, assault, child abuse and intent to harm.No way it should have ended like it did without repercussions. Matt's brother was behind making the grandmother fall and injure herself in the kitchen. Actually planned the crime and executed it.He is also legal guardian to Matt and very abusive. I was waiting for the movie to have had CPS remove Matt from his brothers care because that guy is twisted.Nothing happened!