The Duff Trailer The biggest surprise I took away from
The Duff was how good it turns out to be. I love
Mae Whitman in pretty much everything she has done, but even I questioned her being cast in the lead role when the Trailer first dropped. For me, I just thought that
Mae was just too old to be playing a High School character. Now I don't mean 'Old' in a derogatory way, just in the obvious age gap of an actress and a character archetype that usually does have to adhere to a certain age to be believable. So I definitely went into watching
The Duff somewhat expecting the movie to fail and yet, I was slowly warming up to everything that was transpiring on screen. Along the way. I did keep saying to myself that this story would have worked better if she was in College so as to justify her age. But the more the movie went on and the more I thought about it, doing it that way would have definitely crippled the story in the end. So, in hindsight, it had to be a High School flick and
Mae just wins you over that you really don't care about the age gap any more. At least for me I didn't care.
The story itself does follow the typical tropes and plot points, but there is enough new stuff to make it somewhat different. I didn't think it would have any kind of profound message, but by the end, you realize it has a great message that everyone will relate to in some way. It's kind of empowering young kids in away and how to shun those that try to put you in a box. The flick was engaging enough that I just got into it and it masked a twist that even I didn't see coming mid-way through the movie in spite of what the movie is about. It's in the f*cking Title!! Along with
Mae, I thought the rest of the cast was perfect in their own way. Some funny moments throughout. There were a couple of spots where I would have written it a bit different in the set up so as to better flesh out some of the characters. Beyond that, solid flick. If you like High School flicks, I think this is an easy recommendation. I even managed to gets some new notes that I can incorporate into my own HS stories. So, Win-Win!