Let me preface this by saying I've been seeking answers, like anything at all, that would suggest what this movie is supposed to be.
Disliked stoner is this main character. (Note that the actor says that this character is the most popular guy in the school, despite the fact that no one except himself ever suggests that he has any value.) The girl that he falls for is a new girl at the school, who falls for him instantly and has oral sex with him basically right off the bat, eventually ending up in with the popular girls and at a variety of parties. (Note that the actress who plays this character refers to the character as "the good girl".) This trend continues even for the most minor characters, every actor got interviewed about their character and offered some summation or fact that doesn't line up with how they were actually presented in the movie. I'm not sure if they were supposed to be in character and the narcissists they are in the film, or if this explains the strange characters.
Imagine if John Hughes decided to make another rom com, but set in 2011, and knowing nothing of modern youth except what he sees on Dr Phil, Nancy Grace, etc. Even the director acknowledges the "modernized John Hughes" idea, but he also writes himself in as a weed dealer.
The actors call the script "pretty accurate" but "a little bit more intense" than reality. The actors also say they recognize the "absurdity" of some scenes. Call it something you "can't take too seriously".
And really, what I've been avoiding in this review is what happens in the movie. The attempted rape, halted only momentarily by a nerd yelling "STOP THE MADNESS!", the near-Shakespearean performance of a teacher, walking through the halls, only to find the main character cheating on his girlfriend. Why was he cheating, you may ask? A girl accused him of having a penis that felt like "warm cheese". The dildo, given by a character who may or may not be actually mentally handicapped in the film to another character that he had spoken maybe 3 lines of dialogue to. Teachers cussing in class. The entire character of "Ferrat Barret", whose room is plastered with pornographic magazines he cut apart to customize (dude knows photoshop is a thing, yeah?). The popular girl - not someone trying to look popular, mind you, the one who actually is popular - being quoted as saying "Smoking's the best, dude. Especially when it's like a big fat joint, the bigger, the better". Bizarrely enough, none of these are really main plot points, but I've marked this as spoiler-y just because the attempted rape was one of the only genuinely surprising moments in the film.
One of two things happened here. The first is that the director is so far removed from reality and youth that he through darts at a board covered in cuss words, stapling them together haphazardly while blowing most of the film's budget on fake (and, I think, real) drugs. The film does officially call itself "A high school love comedy, which authentically depicts the lives of today's ever- evolving and parentally subversive youth culture."
The other is that this is intentionally bad. This is the scenario that lets me sleep at night. That the director decided to make satire and present as reality for a shock value. And if you take the movie like this, it becomes something more interesting. The humor is already at levels of "so awkward it's good", whether intentional or not, but the commentary may actually be something interesting. Either the director is pointing out that teen movies, as they are directed by people far removed from that world, will never be accurate, will always be cheesy, and that this is the result, or he's satirizing the way that concerned parents view their kids. In actuality, there aren't many high schoolers actually doing as much cocaine, smoking as much weed, having as much sex, cutting as much class, etc. as is shown in the film, but a lot of parents have it in their head that that's what every kid does today.
So if this was a satire of how adults view the youth, bravo, you've made something special. If this was actually a serious film, you've missed the mark entirely, but made something great for laughs.
I've seen the movie 3 times now, watched the cast commentary, the trailers, etc., and I still can't decide which it is. Watch this for yourself, and you decide.
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