Directed by: Ari Sandel
Written by: Josh A. Cagan (screenplay) & Kody Keplinger (novel)
A high school senior realises she's the DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) in her friend group, and she wants to change that with the help of her neighbour, one of the most popular boys in the school.
Since I hadn't written any reviews lately, or even watched any movies, I visited the local video rental store. My friend Pipsa recommended The DUFF for me, because she had seen it and enjoyed. And to be fair I think I've been in a slump so I really needed something to watch, and if it's a ridiculous but possibly funny high school movie that will help me, I will watch it.
And if you haven't seen this movie, there's something I need to say immediately. It's mostly because I am over weight and I was wondering in what universe would Mae Whitman and / or her character be "fat", well, a DUFF doesn't necessarily need to be ugly or fat. Go figure.
Anyway, high school movies are almost always fun. They are completely over the top, because the kind of teen drama in movies doesn't exist in real life, at least not in this form, at least not where I am from. That kind of drama wouldn't suit in a movie, it's not extremely cinematic. (Our drama is so much more vaguer like there was a period that lasted over a month where about four people didn't talk to other five people because both groups thought the other group was angry, while it turned out nobody was angry at anyone.) So, The DUFF has all the highlights of cinematic high school drama: there are brutally mean people, there are so many embarrassing things the main character does that make the viewer want to shut their eyes from all that. It has the kind of pop culture and social media references that won't mean anything in ten years, probably. Some of those are outdated even know. Honestly, they refer to Robert Pattinson, who was in, like, five years ago or something! Someone who never lived through the Twilight phase doesn't necessarily get that.
Of course The DUFF also has all the annoying little things in high school movies. Some people hate these things, some people love them because they are so tacky, but I don't know anyone who would say they like this stuff unironically. First of all, plot structure. While after five minutes you can't predict every turn in the movie, it's super easy to see what will happen next, how a certain scene will turn out. The structure is always the same in these movies. Sure, it's kind of fun to predict the events with your friends or so on, but it gets annoying. Another annoying little thing: everyone is the wrong age. Come on, Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell are both almost 30, and they are playing high school students. Why?
While this movie typically has am emphasis on teenage romance and crushes, I love how eventually it's about Whitman's character coming to terms with who she is and just... loving herself the way she is, instead of the DUFF being all about Bianca getting the guy or something like that. I think every high school movie, Mean Girls, Clueless, all the others, are mostly focused on the love story and not enough on girls loving themselves and all that. It just was a nice change in the typical story. And it wasn't even just subtext it was exactly how it was.
Also typically high school movies love stereotypes and being loyal to them - this means they can have one character outside the stereotypes (usually the main character) and then two-dimensional simple supporting characters. But most of the stereotypes are shattered in the DUFF. Sure, Bianca's neighbour Wes is a jock but there's more to him than that. There are a lot of characters outside stereotypes, or at least their cliques are very hard to place. It's refreshing to see characters instead of stereotypes.
The DUFF has probably as many good things as it does bad things. It's refreshing from its typical genre, but it still follows too many cliches. It's an average movie at best, even if it's better than most modern high school movies.
☆☆☆☆☆☆
6 / 10
EDIT: My friend Rose pointed out how ridiculous it was that they made the prom dress in about few hours while she estimated it would take at least two weeks, maybe even a month. Can't help but agree.
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