Review of The DUFF (2015) by Isadore H — 29 Mar 2017

Oh look! It's another high school movie where the unpopular girl gets a makeover to impress a guy and ends up falling for her friends instead. How unexpected! To be fair The DUFF does try to avoid many of the clichés of this type of movie. However, despite its best efforts it is still formulaic and is unable to be unique enough to not feel a bit stale.

The DUFF is about Bianca (Mae Whitman), who discovers she is the DUFF (Designated Fat & Ugly Friend). She herself is the cliché smart, quirky, funny, average looking person in a high school filled with super models. Outraged she sets out to be her own person. She also the usual crush on a guy she is unable to talk to and therefore has never interacted with in the past, yet is ready to change everything about herself to be with. She recruits Wes (Robbie Amell) her neighbor and hot jock who she would toooooootally never be interested in to help give her a makeover. Of course she falls for him and there is the usual up and downs before they get together. This may be a spoiler, but honestly, who wouldn't have seen that coming. There are however some cliché breaking twists and turns that were a pleasant surprises. Even with some unexpected conflict, the movie lacks any real drama despite its best attempts. In the end the movie does have a nice message about being true to yourself and your friends and yaddayadda. It's basically the same as Mean Girls even ending with a prom/homecoming sequence.

The film is full of fun scenes with amusing dialogue. Mae Whitman shines in this quirky, awkward girl role bringing life to a lot of the scenes. Her performance saves this movie from being completely forgettable amongst all the other high school comedies. Besides her, there is not much to say about the other actors Wes is serviceable enough, though all he really does is be charming. In scenes with the two of them, he takes the backseat to Bianca. However, at times the dialogue seems to be trying too hard. While it was funny the first few times, the constant mentioning of twitter and Instagram and all that nonsense sounds like a middle aged screenwriter trying to appeal to the youths.