Rocket Science airing on HBO

MANILA, Philippines - Jeffrey Blitz, director of Spellbound, makes his narrative feature debut at the Sundance Festival with Rocket Science, a wry comedy of adolescent angst and confusion. Making its Asian premiere tomorrow, Sept. 15, 9 p.m. on HBO, the HBO Original Movie traces a teenager’s journey of tackling the mysteries of life, love and public speaking.

Teenager Hal Hefner has been plagued by an uncontrollable stutter all his life that makes him a social outcast and the butt of jokes in his high school. Coupled with his parents’ divorce and a budding obsessive-compulsive older brother who pushes him around, it is no wonder why Hal’s active mind and quick wit has gone unnoticed. So it comes as a complete, though not unwelcome, surprise when his school’s high-powered debate team’s star member, the hyper-articulate Ginny Ryerson, approaches Hal to be a replacement for Ginny’s former partner, the brilliant Ben Wekselbaum, who dropped out of the team.

Winner of the Best Director award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Rocket Science replaces conventions and clichés of stereotypical coming-of-age tales with a world where everyone, regardless of age, is confounded with desire and longing for human connection.