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The movie “The DUFF” has the decency of acknowledging John Hughes’s 1980 teen movies are its roots, even referencing the five high school stereotypes forced to attend detention together in ‘The Breakfast Club’ that just celebrated its 30th anniversary. However, the movie quickly transforms into its own modern-day phenom at a rapid pace and captivating humor.
Much of the film’s appeal stems from Whitman who plays the titular role of the DUFF or Designated Ugly Fat Friend. While she is none of those things and Director Ari Sandel’s film based on the YA novel by Kody Kiplinger makes it clear that Daffiness is quite relative, she does serve the film’s purpose by being the heart of the film.
After years of playing supporting roles like the now iconic Ann Veal, Michael Bluth’s girlfriend on the hit TV series “Arrested Development,” this should launch her into stardom. Quite preposterous isn’t it? But it’s true. Whether it’s their unbelievable and effortless ability to create the most humorous punchlines or the inspirational decisions involving choice of reactions, delivery or expressions, all of that was on full display with Whitman and her self-deprecating persona with a slightly oversized shirt for a DUFF.
She has great rapport with Robbie Amal as the handsome captain of the football team and a neighbor she’s known her entire life. His Wesley Rush character could have easily been a one-dimensional jerk, but he is far better written thanks to director Josh A Cogan’s screenplay. Amal brings the required sass, but also a surprising amount of wit and kindness. Like Whitman, who has been acting since the age of three, Amal is also in his mid-twenties, but unlike Whitman, who looks much older than she is, Amell’s age does not look as shocking as the ‘Grease’ and ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ franchises.
Wesley is also the one to break the sad news to Bianca that she’s the DUFF to her beautiful and tall friends, Jess (Skyler Samuels) and Casey (Bianca Santos). In short, it means she is the least popular and attractive in her group of friends, and even though she is usually the most intelligent, she has never noticed this aspect of herself.
This reminds me of myself. At one time, I used to wish for a complete makeover. With those radically new looks and an entirely different persona, I thought all my problems would disappear. Gone would be the worries over friends, grades, and even family. All of it, poof! Like magic! I could hear self-affirmations in my head like “She is constantly happy now.” “She has zero problems!” However, it proves difficult to pull the curtains open.
In spite of all this, I can still relate with the protagonist. True friends won’t give up on you for your looks, but others will. Others will unfriend you and make sure to leave a five star review of your page; “I don’t miss you!” With every girl vowing to make shunning an art form, I understand parallel universes. You know what’s familiar? You guess it; never leaving feelings of dismay unattended, Allison Janney’s meticulous mom does a phenomenal job of uplifting the disillusioned heroine. She might be crying but that’s perfectly fine because life goes on.
But contemplating life changes is usually inadequate. Getting life’s signals is as straightforward as ordering fast food; simple! One doesn’t need to go on a “A Beautiful Mind” level of complex searching. The self-evolution plan B requires attention and assistance from someone the protagonist is not too keen to embark on a quest with: Wesley. Don’t be let down, Wesley doesn’t sound overly nerdy and in fact, he possesses the ability to shred many of the self-esteem problems of our dear friend. Not virtually, but with smashing down the pathetic boundaries of biochemistry before him. However, our friend does have a bad habit of hating on himself endlessly. Wesley, the marriage-go-round sponsor of an ugly mass of nonsense called obsessed girlfriend, shaped poorly like Madison (Who’s portrayed nicely by the cold-hearted Bella Thorne), ends up providing bone-breaking acceptance within the fragment of strangled beasts of cliches.
As the world desires, few overwhelming surprises sprinkle into the deluge of video cliches. The effect of growing on two platonic friends and the undying tension that piques, force Wesley and Bianca to walk on the line of crushes, befriending, and love triangle clinching with hard hits from ex-girlfriend. Let’s be honest, it’s amusing watching a strong-headed friend stew in jealousy while clinging onto the herb of “I don’t care” when huge amounts of talented self-appointed singers attack from the opposite end. Miss “I’ve got a crush on emo singer Toby” Bianca gets free rein on smacking her best friend Wesley around like a punching bag. There’s ambiguity on how the adored cruel twist plays out sadistically, yet the compassion springs forward.
Director Sandel has done it all, from his Oscar-winning live-action short, “West Bank Story” a musical comedy about rival falafel shops, to the whacky documentary, “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show.” With this first of his features, he makes an effort to keep pace with the theme of rampant social media and manages to shatter genre-specific cliches. He puts a fresh spin on the overdone genre of ‘young adult coming of age’ movies, like the trying-on clothes montage.
Despite the social themes in focus, “The DUFF” sidesteps them and loses direction at the end by going overboard with the self-acceptance, anti-labeling speeches. Once was too much, but for Whitman’s character, the utterly unnecessary repetition of these lines was far too many considering the film’s and his character’s arc. The world is better off not seeing Ken Jeong repeat his sassy stock character, but at least he tones it down a little as Bianca the star reporter’s school paper supervisor.
That’s another reason for the many ways that “The DUFF” is different is because it is the only film that attempts to make the viewer tolerate Jeong’s antics.
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