"CLASS RANK".......WHEN TRACY FLICK MEETS SHELDON COOPER........

Class Rank (2017)    What a nice, breath-of-fresh-air surprise.........bobbing along in in today's churning ocean of cinematic cruelty..........

             With so many films mirroring the toxic Age Of Trump,  this little movie comes across like a defiantly gentle fantasy........

             Imagine Alexander Payne's "Election" if it were directed by the character of 'Keith', the sweet kid from John Hughes' "Some Kind Of Wonderful"........turning the dark tale of an overachiever into a sunny, gentle-hearted romance.......

               Oh, wait a minute.......come to think of it, this was directed by 'Keith' himself, Eric Stoltz.....and he brings a kindness and humanity that no filmmaker working today ever thought of putting into a teen rom-com........

                Upping the stakes, the film dares to throw together two similarly driven, obsessive super-achievers, well played by Olivia Holt and Skyler Gisondo.  Both madly self-absorbed in their quests for excellence, they join forces strictly for self-interest, with Holt becoming Gisondo's election manager as he engages in a quixotic campaign for a seat on their town's school board.

                 Holt's character is basically Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick, but sanded down into a girl who's warm and sweet at heart. Gisondo, on the other hand, is an even more amped-up version of Jim Parsons' Sheldon Cooper from "The Big Bang Theory" (but minus the gag-a-minute laugh lines).....and perilously close to borderline Asperger's and Autism.....

                  Holt aids Gisondo with her campaign manager savvy on how politics really works...but only  to beef up her activities resume for college applications. What neither of them counts on, of course, are the cracks that appear in their armor, their separate force fields that have shielded them not only from bullying and ridicule, but from emotional connection.

                   Put simply........it happens in small increments, but love blossoms.

                   Most refreshing of all.......not a mean bone at all in this film's body. Everyone's treated with respect and good feeling.......and the film has you falling in love with the supporting cast as well, including the forever iconic Bruce Dern as Gisondo's grandfather and Kristin Chenoweth as Holt's mom.

                    Eric Stoltz directs it all with a smooth steady hand, even showing up in a finale cameo that puts a perfect gift-box bow on the proceedings.

                    In the immortal words of Sally Field.....we liked it, we really liked it.  So if you've grown weary of romantic films in which the characters scream out lines like "What part of 'I hate you' don't you understand!"......this one's for you.  4 stars (****)