Madness and Genius

Set in an Ivy League college environment, the story revolves around the conflict between Professor Frank Donovan (noted character actor Tom Noonan) and Jordan McKyle (David James Hayward), an ambitious, ethically questionable young student with a dark secret of his own. Eslinger’s poignant study of human nature, scientific ethics and morality, and the notion of the ‘Greater Good’ reveals how brilliance may, in fact, alienate one from the world and from oneself. Madness and Genius is 22 year-old Ryan Eslinger’s first feature film. He began working on the script when he was only 13, and for the next eight years, he continued to polish the script as he worked a series of part-time jobs to pay for the shoot. This is an amazing debut from a formidable young talent. According to Variety - "It’s still hard to believe that this mature (both stylistically and content-wise), downright sober debut feature sprang whole from someone so young. Resembling a chamber-scaled, downbeat riposte to such inspirational scholastic crowd-pleasers as Dead Poet’s Society and Mr. Holland’s Opus, this stark drama is thoroughly involving."