THE DUFF (2015)

THE DUFF (2015)

Tagline: You either know one, you have one, or you are one

(Comedy, Romance, Teens Doing Teen Things) [PG-13]

If I wanted to go shopping, I could have done that with Jess and Casey. I need you to give me real talk.

This story revolves around Bianca who is going through life just fine when her childhood friend Wesley points out that in her immediate group, she is the ‘The Duff’ (Designated Ugly Fat Friend). After having her confidence shattered she turns to Wesley for help in giving her a new image in return for helping him study. When Wesley’s ex-girlfriend gets the news that Wesley and Bianca have been spending time together, she pulls out all the stops to ruin Bianca in the eyes of Toby, the guy she’s got a massive crush on. 

First off, this is a bit of a downer for me because the dialog is a bit raunchier than some of the other “blast from the past high school drama romance” flicks I’ve reviewed lately. Somewhere in that bit of stupidity is a solid movie if you look hard enough. It also has one of my favorite actresses Mae Whitman who for some weird reason wasn’t in the sequel to INDEPENDENCE DAY (she played the President's daughter in the first one but not the sequel). Mae does a lot of voice work, but she also crushed her role in SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD so yeah – I’m a fan. 

Anyway – in spite of the fact that this movie is weirdly over-sexual in some parts, we do get several fantastic performances and of course, Mae puts in one of them. She plays Bianca in this and quite honestly reminds me of the type of girls I went for in high school. I guess I just was never into the stuck-up supermodel types and even the ones that had personalities just weren’t my thing. I dated girls that were just a little bit weird and had a natural attractiveness that didn’t have to be painted on every morning. Bianca is also into both old-school horror but is really sweet internally and some other interesting things that intrigued me, so this character for me, was someone I could root for (aside from some of the dark pervy things... gross). Moving along to the actual review I also liked Robbie Amell in a lot of this. He plays Wesley and also has a bit of a tender side that contrasts his shallow persona. This script gives him a lot of room for growth and we see that play out which is really awesome. I also have to say that Bella Thorne does a commendable job playing a big toe in this as Madison, but I haven’t liked much of anything else she’s been involved in if I am being honest. I say big toe because I can’t stand the ‘b-word'. I think I have only said it once or twice. 

The pacing is pretty good and I am a fan of the voice-over stuff we got in this film where the main character is setting the stage for us. We also see this in both CLUELESS and MEAN GIRLS. The characters are pretty well-rounded but both of Bianca’s friends are nearly written out of the movie in the middle act. They don’t show up again till it’s time to make a dress. While this does allow more interaction and focus on Bianca and Wesley, I think it could have given this thing just a bit more depth if they had been at the forefront for Bianca for some of the harsher treatment she gets. 

The humor is a bit tacky and cringy by today’s standards. I don’t want to say that the woke mob would be after this film, but it feels like if a focus was put on everything in this, it would get raked over the coals for some dumb reason or another. I did like the score quite a bit, but it was not on par with some of the other films of this type. 

Overall THE DUFF is just fun enough for me to re-watch it at some point, but it’s not on the same level as CLUELESS, MEAN GIRLS, or even EASY A. This one gets a 3 out of 7. Better writing would have helped and pretty much all 3 points are for Robbie and Mae. 

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