The Preppie Connection Trailer (2016)

Trailer for The Preppie Connection, starring Sam Page, Lucy Fry and Thomas Mann.

How to win friends: smuggle $300k of uncut cocaine into your snooty prep school. Based on the wild story of a teen drug trafficker who rocked headlines in 1984, this true crime caper stars Thomas Mann (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) as Toby, a blue-collar scholarship student at an elite boarding school who finds an in with the cool crowd by supplying them with cocaine. But things spiral out of control when Toby goes from small-time dealer to international drug trafficker, culminating in a trip to Colombia and a daring deal with a cartel. Capturing the music, style, and burgeoning “greed is good” ethos of the 1980s, The Preppie Connection is a stranger than fiction look at the price of popularity.

While The Preppie Connection trailer claims it is based on a true story, it is hard to identify with what actual story. Considering that the story and its time period are insanely interesting, it would have been better if IFC Films acknowledge actually which "true" story we could expect to be seeing. Or is this just loosely based?

While the film's production had a tough start with Evan Peters and Bella Heathcote, who were originally cast to star in the film, dropping out after almost a year in delays of production, the pickup of Thomas Mann and Lucy Fry seemed a decent audible. The Preppie Connection went on to various film festivals including its world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 10th, 2015. IFC Films liked what they saw and acquired the film by December of the same year.

Drugs in the 1980s is always an interesting topic, especially if that drug is cocaine. To make the story behind The Preppie Connection even more captivating is that we follow an innocent youth as he enters a world which combines rich white kids with Colombian drug lords. Though the production lost Evan Peters early on -- I'm thinking his role in the X-Men films complicating things -- Thomas Mann looks terrific here and feels like he fits the part.

Should be interesting to see just how wide IFCFilms is willing to go for the film's distribution. By announcing a VOD release timed with the theatrical release, expect to have to travel a bit to see The Preppie Connection in theaters.