Review of The DUFF (2015) by Ben R — 22 Feb 2015

Interesting. This movie looked terrible, but I figured it wouldn't be truly awful since it at least has a good cast. And I was right. The cast mostly saved this from being really bad. Instead, it was just okay.

There are some funny lines in this movie, but the most I ever really laughed at an individual line was a mild chuckle. There were some segments that just weren't funny at all, usually involving the name-dropping of apps, like when Bianca told Jess and Casey all the ways she was unfriending them on social media. Most of the humor was due to two essential ingredients: Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell.

Whitman and Amell were the saviors of this movie. Every other character is either predictable or underdeveloped. Jess and Casey are barely in the movie, despite driving most of the plot, and they're each paired with the most convenient qualities ever: Jess is a fashion designer, and Casey is a hacker. As you can tell, these two character traits end up saving the day in various ways. There's basically nothing else developed about them. Madison is just a bitch, the stereotypical queen of the school (despite the voiceover at the beginning of the movie attempting to dismantle the idea of social hierarchy in high school) who doesn't have nearly as much shading as Regina George or even comparatively lame 'popular girls' like Fawcett in G.B.F. Allison Janney is great, so some of her bits are funny, but she still feels tacked on. Same with Ken Jeong. But no, the real treasures of the movie are Whitman and Amell; the only times I actually laughed out loud or genuinely was really happy was when they were onscreen (especially together). They have great chemistry, and the way each would laugh during their banter was genuinely adorable sometimes. Their romantic arc was extremely predictable, of course, but this is one of those times that the actors really can turn the material around.

Of course, not entirely. There are plenty of other annoying things about this movie. The message is pretty cheesy, nothing much deeper than 'be yourself,' and articulated in a way similar to every other teen movie. The movie is riddled with cliches, like the scene where everyone in the school points and laughs at Bianca, and the arrangement between Bianca and Wes that propels the movie. There's deus ex machina in the form of Madison's sidekick who records everything, conveniently dropping videos on the Internet to embarrass Bianca. Sometimes I was annoyed by how the movie insisted that Bianca was super uncool, and I was simultaneously annoyed by the implication that actually she's unexpectedly quirky and fun - loving cult horror movies and wearing flannel? It's another stereotype of a secretly cool nerd girl, like Juno (although Juno is way funnier and better all around).

The whole premise of the movie is difficult to accept due to the both offensive and groan-worthy idea of a 'DUFF,' but the movie improves once it settles into its teen movie cliches and forgets about the DUFF idea. Unfortunately, it still devotes a lot of time to it, and the first 30 minutes are basically all about introducing and defining the term. There's a lot of forced conflict in that time, like when Bianca becomes so unnecessarily insecure that she dumps Jess and Casey as friends, even though they've given no indication that they're actually using her.

Still, there's enough Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell in the movie to make it entertaining, so I wouldn't say I really dislike it. They elevate it at least to 'okay' territory.