Review of The To Do List (2013) by Jack S — 16 Jun 2014

A nerdy high-school valedictorian graduate realizes she has conquered everything she ever wanted except for men. Her older sister and friends intimidate her by telling her about how college will be a giant erotic buffet, and if she is not ready things will be hard.

Panicking, her ambitious attitude kicks in, and she sets out to master a wide array of sexual experiences before going to college. This is not a new concept for a raunchy comedy. What makes it different is how women are the ones cracking the funny rude comments and acting as the sexual predators.

It is refreshingly honest and helps restore some shock value to the jokes. Aubrey Plaza is a perfect fit for the main role. She has the awkward neediness one expects, but she also conveys a bossy wrongfully placed sense of confidence that makes her character uniquely funny.

The humorous 1993 setting adds more to the humor more than expected with silly pop culture references. More importantly, the early 90s setting removes the presence of the Internet, now the go to learning tool for these matters.

This nice move makes her mission to educate herself about sex much funnier. There are a number of side characters, some better than others, but overall they make strong enough support. In a surpassing but interesting move, it avoids becoming a romantic comedy.

Perhaps this deflates the feel-good vibe, but it keeps the tone of the movie funny from start to finish and does not fall into a formula. This greatly exceeds expectations and is a strong comedy, so long as you take no offence in raunchy humor or the thought of teenagers having sex.