BY MIKEY MIGO
I’m at a point in my life where a PG13 comedy is often not going to cut it. Sure there are acceptions, probably many of them, but in 2010 putting a PG13 rating on a movie kind of secures the fact it’ll be sans f-bombs, adult content, or really funny jokes. I’m not saying I want every movie to be “The Hangover”, but at least with maturity. I don’t need to hear an f-bomb, but in most cases the “edgy” PG13 will then use cutesy curse-words and pussyfoot around the obvious f-bomb. Too much is alluded to. That was my worry here. I looked funny enough and I’m a fan of the casting, but that PG13 stamp put a damper on my expectations and excitement. Was this unfair? Probably. It wasn’t a bad movie at all. It was definitely not without its charm. Emma Stone is awesome. I’ve enjoyed her in everything I’ve seen her in. I’m not just talking about her recent post-Superbad success. I took notice of her during her one off on Malcolm In The Middle and her appearance on the massively underrated “Lucky Louis”. She’s beautiful, but has a certain down to earth coolness to her that makes her very likeable and easy to cheer on. With saying that she’s a lot like a female Ferris Bueller. Yet in this movie she’s anything but widely accepted. She lies to help a gay friend out. He doesn’t want to be harassed for being gay so she pretends they had sex. The reputation builds and her lies go farther and farther until she’s pretty much known as the school slut. It’s like a bad sitcom plot. There are really no plot points or twists that made this movie any less predictable. It IS your standard PG13 movie. They sneak in some curse words and edginess to it, but in the end it’s still a “happy in the end/learn a life lesson” type of awe-shucks affair. The performances are worth noting though. Emma Stone was very endearing and charming as the lead, but there were points things just seemed kind of forced with her. Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci were her too-cool-for-school parents were fun but very unrealistic. Thomas Haden Church played her too-cool-for-school teacher and seemed to be sleep walking through the movie. Lisa Kudrow was the too-cool-for-school-but-still-questionable school principal. Pretty much everyone in the movie was too-cool-for-school. So of course this meant we got tons of random references to old John Hughes movies. In the end it felt like Diablo Cody wrote a script for ABC Family and then convinced a lot of cool actors to be in it. Movies like this, that use the word “cliché” SO MANY TIMES have become cliché themselves. If you’re under the age of 16 you’ll love this movie. Anything older and I’d have to question your standards. Everyone involved with this movie from cast to crew have done better and hopefully will do better in the future. C-
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