You know how you see a movie poster or someone in that one movie, and you ask yourself, “Did I watch this?” After watching “Ginny & Georgia,” the actress who played Ginny, Antonia Gentry, caught my eye and I could not remember where I had seen her before. Then I did a quick Google and “Candy Jar” popped up, so naturally, I went to watch it.
“Candy Jar” is the story of Bennett Russell (Jacob Latimore) and Lona Skinner (Sami Gayle). They’re two high school debate champs who have hated each other since elementary school. Why? Because they’re rivals and they thought that they should. But why is it called “Candy Jar?” I’ll tell you why. Their guidance counselor Kathy, played by Helen Hunt. These two are regulars in Kathy’s office because one wants to got to Yale while the other wants to go to Harvard, and they are both freaking out. In Kathy’s office, are various jars of candy. Hence the title, “Candy Jar.”
I never thought about it before watching this movie but we did spend a lot of time with our guidance counselors in high school. I was an honors kid all my life and no one else in my family had been to college. So, going into college applications and picking schools, I was blind. My guidance counselor became my expert. This is what Kathy is for Bennett and Lona. But what she really becomes for these two is a safe space. Lona’s mom has never gone to college so she doesn’t have the experience or knowledge to help Lona, so she supports her by showing up and baking cookies. Bennett, on the other hand, has a mom who is a state senator and went to Yale. She adopted Bennett somewhere in the mist of all of this, but from a viewer perspective, it seems like Bennett wants to go to Yale because his adoptive mom went. Not because he has a vested interest in the school.
Kathy is able to tell these kids things that their parents can but it won’t resonate with them the same. “Sometimes you lose,” is a line Kathy tells both Bennett and Lona after both don’t qualify for the individual state qualifiers. I do agree with the kids that their moms having a back and forth just before they announced the qualifiers played a role. But this is advice that gets Bennett and Lona exactly where they need to be in the end.
Speaking of the final debate, the debate style here is not like that of “The Great Debaters.” I hate it here. I also hated that they did the thing where they explained why the students were speed reading their arguments. It kind of works here, but I hated it anyway. I also hated that our main characters seemed to be yelling while every other contestant seemed to just be reading fast at a normal level. No idea what that was about. Maybe it was for us to discern between everyone else and our two. Jasmine’s, played by Gentry, debate style is my speed. It was clear, concise and real. I was surprised that Lona was the one who scoffed at her debate style, and didn’t see it as a threat. Every movie teaches you to never underestimate your opponent.
We don’t usually see the Black characters having it all and I enjoyed the complexity of this change. Usually, the white kid would be the one who had it all, and it was refreshing to see that flipped in this situation. However, it couldn’t be easy for him to be the Black kid who has it all. Like most Black characters, there is always some push and pull. Bennett’s problem? His mom. Anyone remember that iconic scene between Olivia Pope and Papa Pope?
What Papa Pope is doing to Olivia (although necessary if you’ve watched any number of episodes of “Scandal.) is what Bennett’s mom was doing to him. Although she tells Bennett that she wants him to have everything and more, it seems to me that she wants him to have everything she wanted. I often wonder when watching these TV shows and movies where the kids are obsessed with that one school, “Did they pick that school or did their parents pick that school?” Lona picked her school, but Bennett? As I said before, I don’t believe he picked Yale. I think him mom picked Yale and he settled for it due to the fact that he’s adopted. We don’t know much about his adoption and it doesn’t play a major role in the film, BUT I think Bennett to Kathy to grasp who he really is. Not who his mom wants him to be.
Lona is a bit different. Honestly, and this could be a stretch, but I think Lona is scared to dream big. She’s being raised by a widowed mom who is doing what she can to support them both. Harvard is the biggest reach she can make, but it’s a scary one. Unlike Bennett, she doesn’t have someone who’s been there before. This is a reach she’ll have to make alone. I think, for Lona, Kathy is that cheerleader that reminds her that she can make this reach and she can attain this dream all on her own terms.
Now, usually, I hate movies where they don’t win in the end. However, although they didn’t win the championship, they gained so much more, which is also why I think they got rejected from their dream schools. They just didn’t have everything they needed at the time of application.
What do you all think? Have y’all watched this one?
