There I was, a college-aged male sitting in the relatively comfortable movie theater seat waiting to watch “The DUFF,” wondering exactly what I was doing with my life as terrible trailer after terrible trailer flashed by the screen, never once sparking an interest in me.
Having to ask the nice ticket lady for a ticket to “The DUFF” was a very humbling experience. I reasoned that it was either this or “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” so I just needed to get through it.
Thankfully, I am here to tell you that most of those thoughts left my mind once this movie not started — not because it’s great, mind you, just that it actually wasn’t as bad as the title, premise, poster, trailer, etc. would lead you to believe.
Imagine the most generic teen movie you can think of. A quirky high school senior starts to feel insecure when she finds out people say mean things about her, so she tries to reinvent herself in order to have a good rest of the year. There are high school romances and people being unnecessarily mean. The socially awkward misfit, the jock, the dreamy boy, the girl who is Satan incarnate, the odd mom and even the eccentric teacher all make appearances here. Oh, and homecoming is quickly approaching! Sound familiar? Welcome to “The DUFF.”
It’s hard not to start with the bad about this movie, because there’s a decent amount. The most annoying thing here is that it tries excessively hard to be relevant. It devotes full scenes to listing off various apps and platforms of social media that kids in high school may or may not use, and it ends up feeling like product placement for the less popular apps that get listed along with the big names like Twitter and Instagram. It throws around words like “hacking” and “viral” without clearly showing that it knows what those things even mean.
Beyond than that, this movie does nothing to separate itself from the formula of high school teen movies. If you’ve seen a few of the greats, like “The Breakfast Club” or “Mean Girls,” it becomes painfully predictable, but, admittedly, never boring. A few times it takes the cheesiness to an excruciating level, but the funny moments far outweigh those.
Additionally, some of the editing here was noticeably poor. In one scene, you see a shot from behind the main character’s head, and you can see her lips moving, but they clearly do not match up with the words being said, and that completely took me out of the movie for a second, especially considering that it was a serious scene. Also, look for the hilariously bad Photoshop skills in some of the pictures.
All of that to say, I didn’t hate this movie. Mae Whitman, who plays the main character, Bianca, is the lone highlight in “The DUFF.” She really holds the whole movie together and is believable, even if she is eight years too old to be playing a senior in high school. All of the other actors do exactly as well as you would expect in this kind of movie (which is mediocre), except for Ken Jeong, who is always a sight for sore eyes.
Despite being four years and one gender outside of the target audience, I reluctantly had a pretty good time with this movie. Sure, we’ve seen the clichéd “your title doesn’t matter” storyline done much better than this, but it is just funny enough and the lead had just enough heart to save this movie from being unbearable by someone who doesn’t want to see it. It’s sloppy, formulaic and melodramatic, but still genuine, humorous and amusing enough to be far more enjoyable than it had any right to be. The best way I can sum it up is this: This is the perfect date movie if you just got your learner’s permit.
_Pass the Popcorn if:_ It’s girl’s night out. You’re in junior high and looking for a good date movie. You think “The Breakfast Club,” “Mean Girls” and “Clueless” were too deep. You want to stare at total hottie Robbie Amell.
_Pass it up if:_ It’s boy’s night out. You’d rather not revisit the angsty high school days. You only like films that have some originality. You loved “The Breakfast Club,” “Mean Girls” or “Clueless.”
