The Duff

So I watched the trailer for this movie and thought that this movie might actually be a little bit funny. The trailer had a flair of Mean Girls and I mean... Ken Jeong is in it... that's cool.

The Duff is a highschool story focusing on a girl by the name of Bianca Piper (played by... her? Mae Whitman). Bianca has to seemingly genuine friends who are very attractive. I would usually say who played them but the truth is, A) you don't know these actors, and B) their sole purpose in this movie is to be the attractive friends that Bianca has at the start.

Literally, their purpose is to be more attractive than Bianca. This is made known to Bianca when she runs into her... childhood friend?

The way that Robbie Amell's character is described in this movie is a little bit confusing because a part of me thinks they were friends when they were young and they grew apart. But the way Robbie Amell acts, he's still friends with her and she's kind of an asshole to him, and all because he's the football captain.

Oh by the way, the movie tries to set itself apart by saying the stereotypes of old about high school are gone and now people are defined by who they are instead of what group they fall into. As progressive as this sounds, they really don't do that well as they still identify people as "goths" or "nerds", etc.

Anyway, back to my point, the fact her friends are more attractive is made known to Bianca by Robbie Amell as he reveals to Bianca that she is the Duff of her friend group.

What is a Duff you may ask? Designated. Ugly. Fat. Friend.

Now it is given some context in the fact that the Duff doesn't have to be fat or ugly. A Duff can actually be an attractive person but they are not the most attractive in the group. They are the more approachable one because they're not the target. I thought the best description of this was they are the gatekeeper of the friend group.

Bianca is of course offended by this but she begins to realize that Robbie Amell is right and she resents her friends for putting her in that position.

Bianca makes it her goal to break out of that convention of being the Duff and be her own person. Her goal is to get with this hippie douchebag who she finds attractive. The way that she goes about doing that is recruiting the help of Robbie Amell to break out of her shell and become more than a Duff. In return, she will help him pass science or something, its your stereotypical high school deal.

Here's the thing though. They say that the Duff is the more approachable one, I don't really see how Bianca falls into that category.

Bianca is kind of an asshole. She's suppose to be the scrappy, against the grain, I wear overalls sort of girl, which is fine, but she kind of shuts down a lot of people and while she's dressed like the alternative girl in the group, she's just as manipulative and I'll say it, Bitchy, as the rest of the "popular girls".

Its like they were trying to make this girl Juno but without any of the charm or realness. Hell they even made her mom Alison Janey! She dresses all hipster but she falls in with the gossip of her cool friends. All in all, Bianca is not exactly a great person to center a movie on.

And let's talk about the whole concept of the movie. It centers around a title you would find on Urban dictionary. I'm not even joking about that, there's a part where they go to Urban Dictionary and look up the phrase, Duff.

And when I saw the trailer, I said, huh, that's kind of funny. And it was funny for about 15 seconds. But unfortunately, that's what I think every time I find a funny definition on urban dictionary. I laugh for a half a second, then I move onto the next one. I don't make a full movie out of it. I think it would have been funny to have her realize she's the duff and then look into whether or not other definitions fit in with the social conventions of high school.

But instead, the movie decided to focus on the fact that this generation in high school is obsessed with technology.

Seriously, the movie has this weird theme about it focusing on technology and how its everywhere and people take it WAY too seriously.

Here's the thing though, cyber-bullying isn't a new concept. This movie acted like posting an embarrassing video about someone is a totally new thing.

And I'm sorry, as much as these movies think that kids today cannot survive without their cell phones... well that's probably true but they do it in such a way that its kind of patronizing.

But I would be fine if this movie was just about cyber-bullying. I would be fine if this movie was just about finding your individual self and not falling into categories. But this movie rips off so many high school movies that its just kind of funny if anybody thinks this is anything different than what we've seen in the past. There's parts of Mean Girls ripped off in this movie. There's parts from 16 Candles ripped off in this movie. There's parts from Breakfast Club ripped off in this movie. Nothing is new in this movie.

But the one thing that I will give the movie a little bit of credit for is the romance... sort of.

Now you've probably been wondering why I haven't called Robbie Amell by his character name. The truth is, I didn't remember until halfway through this review. But the truth is, Robbie Amell is not that great of an actor. He's just a hot guy. Ask any girl. Ask any guy. Most people will agree, Robbie Amell is a hot piece.

And the thing I guess I have to give the movie credit on is that they tried to create this romance between two people that in most high school movies would never get together. I'm not saying Mae Whitman is not attractive. She's a beautiful woman. But in the culture of movies that people have grown up with, I don't think you would put these two together.

So I guess I have to give the movie credit for that.

But the truth is, these two together is just odd. Maybe I'm too caught up in the very conventions I was just applauding the movie for trying to break. But the romance is very odd and kind of forced upon us. At the end when they get together (spoilers?) Their interactions are really kind of forced and I don't buy that these two actually would be attracted to one another.

As friends, yeah, there is a part of it that is kind of fun and it is different. You don't see the captain of the football team working with a duff like character too often. And this could have been emphasized with the fact that they were childhood friends. Robbie Amell brings her to Victoria's Secret to pick out underwear. I think it would have been funnier if Robbie Amell was gay and ended up coming out at the end. It would fit with the theme of the movie of not slotting yourself into the norms that are created for you.

And the sad part is, the only times that they really get together are parts where Bianca is dolled up. Its just like the end of Grease when Sandy changes the way she looks and acts in order to get a boy.

I'm not a huge connoisseur of high school films. I kind of skipped over them as a kid. I don't know if this movie is an absolute rip off of every high school movie. Hell, it could actually be on the higher end of high school movies today. But the ones that I have seen that are really good, this one doesn't even compete.

Oh... and Ken Jeong is in this movie... I guess that's cool... Seriously though he's not that funny

And that's what I thought of The Duff. What did you think of it? Comment and Discuss below! Also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on movie news and reviews. You can also shoot me your thoughts on this movie and send me requests for future reviews.

I'll leave you with this. I legitimately could not find a video I thought was good enough for this review... so here's a video about how ads lie to you. Enjoy!