Dances With Films Short Feature Review: ‘Princeton’s in the Mix’

Written by Emily Auskaps

Charlie Besso and Heather Burns as Teddy and Beth in Jonathan DiMaio’s PRINCETON’S IN THE MIX.

It is universally known that parents strive to provide a better life for their children. For parents hope their children will have better opportunities in life than they did. Most parents take great pride in their offsprings’ accomplishments, but some parents go overboard and become obsessed with their children’s achievements, using the success of their children to attempt to fill a hole that was never filled through what they themselves have accomplished (or not accomplished) in life. Outside validation of their children’s abilities is what these parents crave, often without regard for what the child’s preferences are.
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In fact, it’s become culturally apparent that some affluent parents have lost the plot when it comes to getting their children into the most elite of colleges. Princeton’s in the Mix explores just how awry things could go when a parent loses sight of what really matters to their children in the name of blind ambition.

This story finds Beth, played to devious perfection by Heather Burns, obsessing over the entrance exam scores of her pianist son, Teddy. He has thus far been unable to break the scoring threshold that she wants him to get on the SATs so that he can get into what she considers a good school. Teddy is unconcerned, much to Beth’s chagrin. He’s far more interested in preparing for an upcoming piano competition than studying for the SATs. Beth has run out of ideas of ways to get him the extra time she’s certain he needs, despite exploring every avenue of cheating she could imagine.

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The All-Important Piano Echoes in Jonathan DiMaio’s PRINCETON’S IN THE MIX.

Then comes a revelation from one of her fellow admissions obsessed parents: her son is getting extra time to take the test because he seriously injured himself in an accident, much to his mother’s glee and delight. This news is a revelation to Beth, providing a fresh avenue of hope for improving Teddy’s test scores to a woman near crazed over the results, and an air of twisted creativity, to ensure that her son gets exactly the right injury he needs to heal… and meet her needs.
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This timely parable gives the horror treatment to a subject that has filled headlines in recent years. After witnessing the actual lengths that wealthy privileged parents have already gone to getting their children into college by cheating in a myriad of ways, it makes this film incredibly believable. People are capable of terrifying things once obsession overtakes their senses. This slow burn satirical horror film imagines just how very far some people would go and features an exquisite musical score that really captures and amplifies the scenes of this immensely enjoyable film.

Princeton’s in the Mix feels fresh while also employing some of the delicious classic elements of horror, like suspense and gore, in addition to a fascinating snapshot of the simultaneous terror felt by both teens and their parents alike about what will lead to success or result in failure as high school nears its end, and adulthood looms large ahead. It’s an engaging film that invites you in, pleasantly, and then grabs you so that you can’t look away from its jaw-dropping climax. The horrors pictured in this film are made all the more visceral by the fact that this very scenario is not out of the realm of possibility in a culture far more obsessed with status than a quality education.

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