Duff, The : Movie Review


Duff, The (2015) - Movie Poster"The DUFF" isn't exactly a new milestone in teen-comedy filmdom, but it is capable, spry, and mostly wise when it isn't spelling out its moralistic intent. For a subgenre that has been starved for fresh blood in recent years—one of the last great ones was 2010's classic-in-training "Easy A"—musty conventions somehow don't seem as worn-down as they once grew to become after post-John Hughes, late-'90s/early-'00s saturation levels had run their course. Adapted by director Ari Sandel and screenwriter Josh A. Cagan (2009's "Bandslam") from Kody Keplinger's 2010 novel, "The DUFF" follows many of the well-predicted hallmarks of its brethren, but tackles them from a timely here-and-now setting that will likely ring true for modern high-school-aged audiences. And, if the film owes its everything to "Sixteen Candles," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Can't Buy Me Love," "She's All That," "10 Things I Hate About You," and "Mean Girls" (just to name a few), at least its story stays true to its irrepressible heroine without feeling the need to change her. Not bad for a movie with multiple makeover montages.

Malloy High senior Bianca Piper (Mae Whitman) marches to the beat of her own drum. She loves writing for the school newspaper. She has two wonderful best friends in the popular, kind Jess (Skyler Samuels) and Casey (Bianca Santos). Although she is inexperienced with the opposite sex and hasn't much fashion sense, she never is made to feel like an outsider by the people whom she trusts the most. And then, just like that, her reality is shattered forever when her hot-shot neighbor and classmate, football captain Wesley Rush (Robbie Amell), informs her that she is a DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend)—that is, the catch-all phrase for an approachable, non-threatening person whom people go through to get close to their hotter friends. Suddenly feeling insecure and taken advantage of, Bianca drops Jess and Casey as her BFFs, then makes a deal with Wes to tutor him in chemistry in exchange for teaching her how to be more cool and confident. On her path to gaining the courage to ask out her musician crush, Toby (Nick Eversman), she finds herself becoming the subject of snotty queen-bee Madison's (Bella Thorne) wrath after the junior tyrant catches her getting too close to on-again-off-again boyfriend Wes.


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Author : Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com.