Back to trending
Spud

Spud

Comedy · Drama · 2010

It's South Africa 1990. Two major events are about to happen: The release of Nelson Mandela and, more importantly, it's Spud Milton's first year at an elite boys only private boarding school. Spud is a boy from an ordinary background who wins a scholarship to a private school in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Surrounded by boys with nicknames like Gecko, Rambo, Rain Man and Mad Dog, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home.

Movie details

Spud

2010 Comedy · Drama 1h 47m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

It's South Africa 1990. Two major events are about to happen: The release of Nelson Mandela and, more importantly, it's Spud Milton's first year at an elite boys only private boarding school. Spud is a boy from an ordinary background who wins a scholarship to a private school in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Surrounded by boys with nicknames like Gecko, Rambo, Rain Man and Mad Dog, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Spud?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

I Like Movies

I Like Movies

Comedy · 2023

Socially inept 17-year-old cinephile Lawrence Kweller gets a job at a video store, where he forms a complicated friendship with his older female manager.

Handsome Devil

Handsome Devil

Drama · 2017

A music-mad 16-year-old outcast at a rugby-mad boarding school forms an unlikely friendship with his dashing new roommate.

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Comedy · 1996

An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with inattentive parents and bullies at school.

Ghost World

Ghost World

Comedy · 2001

Two quirky, cynical teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives after high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.

Eighth Grade

Eighth Grade

Comedy · 2018

Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year — before she begins high school.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Drama · 2015

Greg is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films with Earl, his only friend. But both his anonymity and friendship threaten to unravel when his mother forces him to befriend a classmate with leukemia.

The Man Without a Face

The Man Without a Face

Drama · 1993

Justin McLeod is a former teacher who lives as a recluse on the edge of town after his face is disfigured from an automobile accident ten years earlier, in which a boy was incinerated--and for which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Also suspected of being a paedophile, he is befriended by Chuck, causing the town's suspicions and hostility to be ignited.

Hala

Hala

Drama · 2019

Seventeen-year-old Pakistani American teenager Hala struggles to balance desire with her family, cultural, and religious obligations. As she comes into her own, she grapples with a secret that threatens to unravel her family.

Giant Little Ones

Giant Little Ones

Drama · 2019

Two popular teen boys, best friends since childhood, discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party.

To the Stars

To the Stars

Drama · 2019

Under small-town scrutiny, a withdrawn farmer’s daughter forges an intimate friendship with a worldly but reckless new girl in 1960s Oklahoma.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Donovan Marsh

Written by

Donovan Marsh

John Cleese

John Cleese

Mr. 'The Guv' Edly

Troye Sivan

Troye Sivan

John 'Spud' Milton

Jamie Royal

Jamie Royal

Henry 'Gecko' Barker

S

Sven Ruygrok

Robert 'Rambo' Black

Blessing Xaba

Blessing Xaba

Sidney 'Fatty' Sibeko-Scott

Tom Burne

Tom Burne

Vern 'Rain Man' Blackadder

Josh Goddard

Josh Goddard

Charlie 'Mad Dog' Hooper

Court is in session

Put Spud on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.