Ed Oxenbould (memorable as a hapless teen accomplice in Christmas-themed slasher Better Watch Out, and as a long-suffering victim of emotional incest opposite a titanic Carey Mulligan in Wildlife) stars as geeky teen Tim Long, resentful of his tiny, snowy town of Hobart, Canada that he bemoans is as white as its mascot—white squirrel. Naively hoping for an idealized experience full of culture and intellectual stimulation, Tim submits to a foreign-exchange program with the help of his parents (Jennifer Irwin and Paul Braunstein). French film-obsessed, antisocial and unpopular Tim isn’t expecting or prepared for extroverted Parisian Stéphane (Jogia), who’s kind of like a tall, handsome Pépe Le Pew, initially giving the motormouth foreigner a chilly reception (the kid gets a similarly icy non-welcome from much of the small town’s inhabitants and his classmates). Stéphane is a smoothie, an insatiable horn dog (he travels with his own VHS porn, and his own toothpaste) and he excels at athletics. In one of the film’s funniest moments, he admits disliking the rather pretentious French cinema Tim adores. Of course, this is heading in the direction of heartwarming in time, as Stéphane is a tonic for shut-off, sheepish Tim—who is, frankly, pretty unlikeable when we first him. This isn’t unfamiliar movie territory and mishandled it would have been schmaltzy, but The Exchange isn’t a sanitized PG or even PG-13 (thank God), and depicts teens more or less as they are, mining frequent laughs, some of them pretty big. Mazer is a two-time Oscar nominee for co-writing both Borat scripts with Sacha Baron Cohen, so this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. The picture’s MVP is Jogia, who’s funny, physical—exuberant without ever sinking into caricature. The flamboyant foreigner never shuts up about girls and sex—in a way that’s more endearingly natural than leery. And there’s an emotional core; the mixed-race youth’s ostentatious exterior only does so much to cover up scars from an oppressively xenophobic past and present. It’s a dazzling performance; the 29-year-old Canadian star (passing here as a teen) clearly has enough presence to drive a feature film, likely destined for blockbusters. Whenever the picture occasionally runs the risk of being too quaint, or stumbles under its extraneous narration, Jogia grabs our attention and empathy with a turn that’s amusingly flashy and touchingly real. Running time: 93 minutes Not rated: contains strong language and lots of sex jokes From Quiver Distribution, The Exchange hits On Demand and digital platforms on July 30. Check out movie trivia.
