Review of The DUFF (2015) by Rory T — 25 Jun 2015

The DUFF is a high school comedy about a girl who discovers that she is her friend group's resident duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend. Basically the one who is there to make the other girls look better and help guys learn about the more attractive friends and speak kindly about them to the girls. When she figures this out she goes on a spree trying to overcome her duffness and prove to herself that she is actually none of those things. Comedy ensues.

Things I Liked:

Mae Whitman. Mae Whitman was great in her role as the titular Duff, Bianca. She was funny, she had great moments, you really cared for her and her struggle, she carried the movie well. I found that she was easily the best part of the movie, which is good considering she was the entire driving force behind the film. She played it well and earned our attention. And for someone who has been around for a while it's surprising we haven't truly seen her breakout sooner.

Robbie Amell. I have liked Amell on the Flash this past year and his work in this movie was both very different from his work on the Flash and very fun. His work in this as a slightly stereotypical dumb jock was fantastic and he brought numerous laughs with either his lack of intelligence or his teenage boy attitude towards everything. Mae Whitman and he work really well together as a slightly odd couple type pair and they create many of the movies high points as a result.

Things I Didn't Like as Much:

Other Characters. All of them felt two dimensional, underused, and unnecessary. The problem with the movie was that so many of the moments were very stereotypical in what could have been a really innovative and interesting high school comedy, which hasn't happened in a few years. I was disappointed by how, with the exception of Whitman and Amell, none of the characters really jump off the screen and make an impact.

The Movie Was Trying Too Hard. The Duff has a lot of callbacks to other teen comedies, Mean Girls, Easy A, etc. But where it suffers is when the film tries to be those movies. The Duff, as I said before, is an interesting idea but gets bogged down being every other high school comedy that has come out in the past decade or so. And It's a bummer because teen comedies are a really great genre when done right. This one missed mark trying too hard to be everyone else when it should have been its own animal.

Overall. Overall the film delivers some good laughs and the two leads carry the film well. The film suffers in not being unique enough and trying to hard to emulate many other teen comedy movies. But the film is enjoyable if you like those kind of movies but doesn't break out and declare itself one of the staples of the genre. I however enjoyed watching this and it made me laugh and feel for the characters at times.