OK, let's be real here. It's a teenage sex comedy. We all know what to expect. So the criteria are not how it provides insight into the human condition, they are whether it is funny. The sad truth is that most teenage sex comedies suck as far as laughs go. The exceptional ones --- your American Pie or Superbad --- keep you laughing pretty much nonstop, but 90% of the movies in this category consist of not just a formulaic plot but also not a single laugh.
So how does this compare? Well in the hope that the screenwriter one day reads these reviews, let me give my analysis. Naomi Selfman has written a few movies in this vein, but the two best (IMHO) are this and the 18 Year Old Virgin. The good thing about both of these movies is that they are strongly written from the female point of view, which is not just empowering, blah blah, it also provides for a whole new line of jokes. ON THE OTHER HAND both these movies suffer in the script, primarily I suspect from lack of time. Once the script seemed finished, it should have been put aside for three months or so, then revised. And perhaps had a collaborator brought on board.
In both cases the overall premise for the movie is good. It is presented, and grabs our attention right away, the pacing throughout the movie is good, and little time is wasted on nonsense. The problem is with the jokes themselves. These come in a few different forms
Both of these are missing in the scripts. The jokes, while funny, are formulaic --- we see the setup, and there's no variation or surprise in the pacing.
I do hope Naomi Selfman gets a chance to write more of these comedies from the female point of view, but I ALSO hope that she has a chance to spend more time on the future scripts so that they move from around "better than average" to "OMG I could not stop laughing". We'll see.
So how does this compare? Well in the hope that the screenwriter one day reads these reviews, let me give my analysis. Naomi Selfman has written a few movies in this vein, but the two best (IMHO) are this and the 18 Year Old Virgin. The good thing about both of these movies is that they are strongly written from the female point of view, which is not just empowering, blah blah, it also provides for a whole new line of jokes. ON THE OTHER HAND both these movies suffer in the script, primarily I suspect from lack of time. Once the script seemed finished, it should have been put aside for three months or so, then revised. And perhaps had a collaborator brought on board.
In both cases the overall premise for the movie is good. It is presented, and grabs our attention right away, the pacing throughout the movie is good, and little time is wasted on nonsense. The problem is with the jokes themselves. These come in a few different forms
- sometimes a good joke lives off tension. The audience can see what is going to happen, but it doesn't quite happen, then it doesn't quite happen, then it almost but doesn't quite happen, and then, just when you've given up, it happens. - other times a good joke happens out of left field, totally not what and when you expected
Both of these are missing in the scripts. The jokes, while funny, are formulaic --- we see the setup, and there's no variation or surprise in the pacing.
- a third problem (and this really seems a problem with rushed scripts) is the setup that goes nowhere. For example the on-going water balloons in this movie. They seemed like there was supposed to be a setup there --- but there was never a payoff. If a payoff couldn't be figured out, the setup should have been stripped out the movie.
- the final problem is that the absolute best moments in comedy come from the serial gag that builds up in ever more ludicrous ways. We see the first joke and laugh, then somewhat later we see an extension to it and laugh, then even later we see a truly over the top version of it and laugh till our guts ache. There was none of that sort of ongoing serial gag in this. For example the setup of Sue with the washing machine was a good start. But that should have continued to the vacuum cleaner not being the mild gag that it was but more something like she starts to clean (in front of everyone else) realizes what's happening, and even so loses control in front of them while they all stare. Then even later we see something unexpected like she's walking along the street with her grandmother, a pneumatic drill starts pounding up the street, and they both go flush and start twitching and trying to control themselves, while the grandmother says "I guess you really are one of us" or something.
I do hope Naomi Selfman gets a chance to write more of these comedies from the female point of view, but I ALSO hope that she has a chance to spend more time on the future scripts so that they move from around "better than average" to "OMG I could not stop laughing". We'll see.