The DUFF

I was invited to attend the Pink Carpet Premiere for the latest teen movie, The DUFF and though I love the movies I wasn’t too sure if I would love this movie. I remember the teen movies of the nineties, Freddie Prinze Jr still makes my heart melt, and then there was that phase of overly too sweet teen movies of mid 2000s and I more or less gave up on the genre, so I was sceptically entering this one.

I arrived at the premiere and there were the expected screaming girls over lead actor Robbie Amell (The Flash), an opportunity to redo your high school photo, I will never have a good one, it was an overall fun and exciting atmosphere. I grabbed my customary popcorn and cherry cola, then I headed into the theatre not knowing what I was going to see.

To say I was unexpectedly surprised would be an understatement. Firstly, let’s talk about what a DUFF is, DUFF stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend. The film starts with Bianca, played by the hilarious Mae Whitman, being told by school hot guy Wes that she is the DUFF to her two best friends Casey and Jess. Bianca knows that she’s different than her two best friends, she doesn’t care too much for dressing in the latest trends, she loves cult classic films and she is constantly listening to her divorcee, motivational speaker, pant suit loving mother. In a way Bianca is too focused by life and what’s going on around her to really notice how other’s feel about her-except for resident mean girl Madison, played by Bella Thorne, and her mega crush Toby. When Bianca hears she’s the DUFF and her eyes open to all of the DUFF-ing that’s going on around her, she enlists the help of the very person that told her she was the DUFF, Wes, and they tackle the teen-world of social perceptions and labels.

What I loved about this film is how refreshing Bianca is and how she “solves” her problem of being the DUFF to Jess and Casey. These characters are honest representations of who teens are and show how much it has changed to be a teen even in the last 5 years. I graduated high school in 2010, Facebook was popular, Twitter and Instagram were just starting out but for the most part as teens we were still using social media as a tool when nowadays there is no line between a teen’s social media world and the “real” world. The DUFF truly captures this change in teens and makes fun of their dependency on their devices without feeling condescending. The comedy brought in this film far exceeded my expectations, the chemistry between Amell and Whitman is genuine and never feels forced. Mae Whitman carries this film as a leading lady should and does it staying youthful and fun, I am truly looking froward to what she has in her future.

So if you are looking for a fun flick this weekend or know a young woman in her teens, I highly recommend this movie. It’s light hearted while teaching an honest lesson that I have never seen in a teen movie before, that I know as a teen I would have believed and would have been good to hear at the time. Because in the end we are all someone’s DUFF and that’s okay.

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