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The teen sex comedy is nothing new. Every year, we see movies like American Pie and Superbad, in which teenage boys set out to become men. Of course, in the past, it was extremely rare for the main character of such an outrageous adventure to be female—but now, in this post-Bridesmaids world, it’s common to see girls being just as shameless as guys in movies like writer/director Maggie Carey’s The To Do List.
Aubrey Plaza stars as Brandy Klark, the overachieving valedictorian of the class of ’93. All her life, Brandy has gotten by on her grades and her perfect attendance—but now that she’s going to college, the rules are changing. And when it comes to the opposite sex, she’s desperately in need of some tutoring.
In order to prepare for her wild and crazy college days, Brandy makes a long (and explicit) list of things that she needs to experience before she leaves for college—with the ultimate goal of losing her virginity to her handsome coworker, Rusty Waters (Scott Porter).
This kind of comedy is hard to do really well. It’s all too easy to take the subject matter—or the raunchy comedy—too far. But, for the most part, The To Do List is surprisingly, outrageously entertaining—without crossing over the line to awkward and uncomfortable. The humor is definitely crude, but it’s rarely in-your-face—and despite the language and the subject matter, the story is sometimes unexpectedly sweet (thanks, mostly, to Johnny Simmons, who’s absolutely adorable as Brandy’s lovesick lab partner). It isn’t nearly as smart as 2010’s Easy A, but it’s still often laugh-out-loud funny.
The film’s greatest problem is its main character. Brandy is arrogant and bossy—not exactly a likable character. And despite the fact that she’s supposedly brilliant—and she’s surrounded by both a pair of slutty friends and a slutty older sister—she’s completely clueless about most of the things on her list. Somehow, she manages to put the list together, but she doesn’t know what most of them mean—so, being the genius that she is, she makes a mental note to ask the librarian about the ones that she can’t seem to find in the encyclopedia.
It’s hard to know how we’re supposed to feel about Brandy. Are we supposed to feel sorry for her because she’s so oblivious and inexperienced? Because it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who’s condescending and rude to just about everyone she encounters. Are we supposed to root for her in her decision to become as slutty as her sister? Because her sudden change from prudish to predatory feels rather sudden and unnatural.
Fortunately, though, the rest of the characters help to pick up the slack. Bill Hader (Carey’s husband) has some great moments as Brandy’s immature, hard-partying boss. And Clark Gregg absolutely steals the show as Brandy’s uptight dad, who’s shocked and mortified by his daughter’s curiosity.
The To Do List definitely isn’t the perfect raunchy chick flick—mostly because of the prickly main character. It isn’t particularly clever, either, but it’s often just plain funny. So if you could use a laugh, skip The Heat and take the girls out to see this one instead.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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