VividSimon Simply Perfect

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Jared_Andrews Candy Jar tells the story of Bennett (Jacob Latimore) and Lona (Sami Gayle). They're two compulsively competitive high school classmates, both debate team standouts, both with eyes set on Ivy League colleges. They share similar mindsets, personalities, drives, and aspirations. They seem to be two peas in a pod, compatible and meant to be great friends, or even a couple. Only one problem: they can't stand each other. Their similarities are obvious to any third-party observer, but they see each other as opposites. They can't agree on anything. She dreams of attending Harvard, while he has his heart set on Yale. See, total opposites. This whole notion that they can't agree on anything is largely silly and unbelievable. It only takes one chance encounter at a movie for the two to realize that they get along splendidly. No kidding, thinks anyone who knows them. How they took 18 years to figure this out, I have no idea. Struggling to ingratiate themselves with their classmates is something that makes sense. They're exhausting. They talk a mile a minute and dismiss anyone who isn't on their level of obsession with debate and academics. When debating, they talk 100 miles a minute, thanks to some strange rule change they mention that led to the competitors emailing all their arguments to the judges and opponents minutes before the debate begins. Now everyone speaks at an absurd rate that makes them impossible to understand and unbearable to listen to. This movie features a lot of debate scenes, so a lot of it is unbearable to listen to. The moments when Bennett and Lona behave like human beings are actually charming. They have real personalities when they aren't reading frantically from their scripted debate notes. In these moments, we see their contrasting home lives. Bennett's mom is a state senator, while Lona's mom works multiple jobs get by. We also see that the students share a bond with the school guidance counselor and her candy jar. Even though keenly aware and only moderately obnoxiously vocal about the downsides of sugary foods, they can't help but indulge in a sweet treat during each office visit.During the course of the debate season, we witness Bennett and Lona run over every one of their opponents, every one except a couple of girls who deploy anecdotal evidence and emotion-based argument tactics. Lona dismisses the girls and their strategy, convinced that the facts are all that matter. She doesn't see the value in the emotional angle that the girls present. The main characters never square off against these girls directly, but they scout them since they could be opponents later in the state finals. You can guess where this is going.There's a fair deal of learning involved in the story. Bennett and Lona learn from each other. They also learn from the emotional debaters, although the lesson is a bit unclear. Overall, the movie has some potential but doesn't quite fulfill it. These characters are interesting when given a chance, and they needed more of an opportunity to do so. Although Candy Jar isn't the worst Netflix movie you'll find, there are certainly better movies out there to see.

kaparz I am not a huge consumer of teen romance movies, so I only really turned this movie on because it was there, but this movie sucked me in from the beginning. Pros: I was rooting for the characters very early on, and I was rooting for them as a couple pretty much the whole time. I found them believable, and I found their conflict made sense. The humor is down to earth and not predictable. Uzo Aduba and Christina Hendricks both did a fantastic job with really layered characters, and I loved their plotline with their respective kids and with one another. Cons: Most of the problem is in the last act, but I will attempt not to spoil. The story wants us to root for characters who say some unkind things about the protagonists (and who don't really interact with them). The last part of the story feels like it relies on us not knowing how debate works (I don't) and finding it a little weird.It seems like the movie tries to sell us on the point that making arguments with "feelings" (I think someone actually says "feelings over facts") is better than evidence, which is an odd point for the movie to want to make anyway, but it feels kind of deceptive since we never properly hear an argument given using evidence (because of the whole talking quickly thing). Ultimately, this plotline feels forced and has no real bearing on anything else. Overall, though, this was a really enjoyable movie.Watch if you're in the mood for a rom com with genuinely good characters. Skip if you're a fan of debate, or if you don't want to watch a movie that doesn't quite know what it's trying to say.

Slick11231973 My title states the basics. This movie was PC garbage for the crazy liberals.

randyfreemire My initial draw to this film was that these two characters would be debating with all the intense energy high schoolers are known for. That's a real feat to pull off well, the split second timing and in and outs of the debate topic. Turns out that this kind of 'debate' is based on READING your research as fast as you can for 8 minutes, there was no real debate, very annoying to listen to, and there was no real demonstration of their brillian minds, we have to take that on faith. Huge disappointment, and gave very little for the film to run on.Other than that, it's your typical story of boy and girl that don't like each other until they fall for each other, and over achievers that spend all their time studying, and realize what they've been missing out on their life. Wasn't worth the time to watch. I think these actors had it in them to pull of real debates, but the creator / scriptwriters took the easy way out.