The DUFF (Cinema Screening)

(spoiler free)

Originally I cast aside this film from a simple misunderstanding of the title, I assumed this film would focus on a high school girl who was ‘up the duff’. Combined with the terrible posters I wasn’t up for this one but I did hear some decent things about it so I thought I had maybe been just a little hasty in my judgement.

I was hoping that The DUFF could be some harmless fun, I was kinda hoping for this generations American Pie but all I got was a feature length Taylor Swift music video. Don’t get me wrong though, as who doesn’t enjoy the odd Swifty music video. The Duff was cheesy, un-realistic and cringe worthy. Sometimes these elements worked for it but other times most definitely against it. Let’s talk about the humour, I’d say it was pretty much exactly 50/50 in terms of getting laughs. Some of the gags feel flat and some jokes did work, however there really wasn’t anything that memorable. My favourite aspect of the humour was Allison Janney’s character Dottie. As always Janney brings her comedic presence to the screen and her character always had something funny to interject. Another element of The Duff that I enjoyed was the social commentary, especially when it focused on social networking. However, at times it did feel like it was trying too hard and at some points it became too unbelievable.

Unfortunately The DUFF wasn’t just a comedy it had the generic romance element to it as well. This element was done by the books which meant that the entire film was completely predictable from the word go. This isn’t too much of an issue as you never go into a movie like this expecting any major twists or plot deviations but it wouldn’t hurt to see something new every once in a while. There are plenty of vomit inducing moments here so just come prepared for full fat cheese in terms of the relationship element. Once it get past all of the lovey dovey rubbish the film likes to think it is ending with a really positive message about self-identity however it actually manages to completely undermine itself in the final scenes, but people watching this movie aren’t in it for the message. This is a trashy film and people like trash, so no doubt the teenage girls will lap this one up.

The DUFF ends up being pretty harmless, it is watchable due to its sporadic humour however its monotonous romantic theme may be too much for some viewers. Its not quite as outrageous as it needed to be to be memorable but it isn’t a bad time at the cinema, and is certainly one of the more entertaining rom-coms in recent years.

Rating – 5.5/10