MOVIE REVIEW: To Do List

Published Mar 7, 2014

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To Do List

DIRECTOR: Maggie Carey

CAST: Aubrey Plaza, Johnny Simmons, Bill Hader, Scott Porter, Alia Shawkat, Rachel Bilson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Andy Samberg, Connie Britton, Clark Gregg

CLASSIFICATION: 16 LS

RUNNING TIME: 104 minutes

RATING: *

 

Hollywood churns out yet another coming-of-age film about kids trying to lose their virginity, but the formula seems to be getting further away from storytelling.

Unlike American Pie or Superbad that managed to create cult followings, To Do List is a poor attempt at trying to convey the real awkwardness of being a teenager and also has no business spending nearly two hours trying to do so.

It is the summer of 1993 and Brandy Clark (Audrey Plaza, pictured) has graduated as the valedictorian of her high school. She is introduced as the nerdy over-achieving virgin who has everything but game.

Realising that she can only be validated as a person after having sex, she makes a sexual to-do-list of things to do in a scholarly fashion and finds various subjects to help her, in order to get rid of her social awkwardness before going to university.

Gender roles are swapped as a girl, not a boy, sets out her sexual conquests aiming to perfect the art of sex. Her ultimate goal is to achieve the affections of a beef- cake stud called Rusty Waters, who gets ladies excited with his Def Leppard covers.

Added to the stresses of being a virgin, Brandy is constantly mocked by her much more attractive, older sister played by Rachel Bilson, who she seeks advice from on how to be more promiscuous. As Brandy starts achieving some of her goals, she manages to break hearts along the way and complications arise.

The film is directed by Maggie Carey, married to comedian Bill Hader, who stars as the slacker manager of the public pool where all the boys and girls hang out in summer.

Set in the 1990’s, we are bom- barded with all kind of quirks from that era, from Salt-n-Pepa to scrunchies, but they come across as juxtaposed references rather than real nostalgia.

The jokes are crass, instead of genuinely funny.

The film has a few laughs, but none that make it memorable.

If you liked Easy A and Superbad then you will like this.

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