Review of Jeremy

Exceptionally bright teenage boy, a cello student at a professional school in New York City, falls in love for the first time with a newly-enrolled dancer just relocated from Detroit. Writer-director Arthur Barron shows a documentary filmmaker's eye in working out the day-to-day lives of these smart, appealing kids, while his script is blessedly free of issues. Jeremy (nicely played by a young Robby Benson) is intelligent without being a nerd, talented without alienating his friends, and quietly, jokingly rebellious with his humorless father without being a smart-ass. Barron won the Best First Work award at Cannes, and was nominated for the Palme d'Or, and Benson was nominated for a Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe, though the picture was otherwise ignored in 1973. It gained some recognition once it played on cable in the late 1970s--and after Robby Benson and co-star Glynnis O'Connor were re-teamed in 1976's "Ode to Billy Joe". **1/2 from ****