Prom Dates

So I gotto admit I'm the occasional sucker for teenage comedies. Hence, once in a while I check some out. This one did not particularly stand out, but it was one of these nights where you just wanna have some dumb fun.

Storywise, we are faced with two teenage girls who made a pact to have prom dates. Sounds even dumber when you spell it out.

Well, the leads were instantly likable and had great chemistry. Other characters did not stand out in any way (with the exception of maybe Vodka Heather...), but were kind of hyper stereotypes. Quite strange in the context of this particular coming of age story.

The movie did not look cheap. The acting was fine. The editing was tight and followed genre conventions. So from a practical perspective, solid movie work.

In summary, a really silly coming of age comedy with enough quirkyness to keep you entertained.

Being a Disney movie, I find it weird though to contrast queer themes with employing hyper stereotyped characters and resolving conflicts with a little good hearted violence. Nevertheless, I had fun. Enjoy!

I'm probably not the intended audience for a teen comedy, being a full-grown adult, but I watch them sometimes, because the teen comedies we had when I was a kid were not exactly inclusive. I found this movie funny, I think the lead characters were wonderful, the leads were convincing as best friends, beautifully supportive, and just silly enough to keep the film overall on the funny side, despite some heavier topics.

When I was the right age for this film, the only film with even some teenaged lgbtq+ characters was the film Heavenly Creatures. It was not a comedy, and it didn't have a happy ending. I wish this film, and some other lgbtq+ focused teen films had existed back then. You don't have to be queer to see the humour of this film, because most characters are straight, but it does add an element of "yeah, relatable" to this story. Also, yes, there's alcohol, drugs and all kinds of inappropriate things going on, but who cares, this is fiction, a comedy, and for once, it's from the girls' point of view.

I can't say that I was exactly harboring the biggest of expectations to the 2024 comedy "Prom Dates" from writer D. J. Mausner and director Kim O. Nguyen when I stumbled upom it by random chance. And with it being a movie that I had never heard about, much less ever watched, then of course I opted to sit down and give the movie a fair chance.

The storyline in the movie was adequate. It was, however, a somewhat generic storyline. It wasn't as if writer D. J. Mausner was reinventing the young adult comedy genre here with this movie. That being said, don't get me wrong, becuase "Prom Dates" certainly was a watchable and entertaining enough movie, if you happen to like this particular genre of movies.

"Prom Dates", however, was somewhat devoid of comedy, and I wasn't brought to laughs a single time throughout the course of the 86 minutes that the movie ran for. So, as for this movie being a comedy, well, no, not so much really. This was more of a movie about coming of age and a movie about friendships.

I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list, except for actor John Michael Higgins. The actors and actresses did good jobs in bringing their characters and the storyline to life on the screen.

This is not a movie that will find its way back to my screen a second time, as the movie was a bit too generic for my liking, and the lack of comedy just was somewhat disappointing.

My rating of director Kim O. Nguyen's 2024 movie "Prom Dates" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I'm sure we all have watched at least of of these kind of movies, let's say Booksmart ? Or Plan B ? Well that doesn't matter - we are up for a ride on the same rollercoaster, baby !!

The story is about two high school girls and them finding someone to go to prom with, Hannah and Jess are typical annoying confused teens and they are coming out of their adolescence. Female friendship, silly cringe comedy, coming out of age are the major themes.

See, this movie is not some deep cinema or whatever, it is a silly little movie with silly jokes and it is really fun to watch at girls' movie nights, sleepover or by yourself when you need a silly movie to rewind.

Best friends, Hannah (Julia Lester) and Jess (Antonia Gentry), made a pact at 13 to have a great prom with their dates. They are now high school seniors. Jess finds her boyfriend cheating. Hannah's boyfriend is too clingy and she comes out of the closet. The two best friends suddenly find themselves dateless just 24 hours before prom.

The girls are well into their twenties. That's my first impression and the lasting one. I can't ignore it every time they're on the screen. Most of these 'kids' are well into their twenties. Otherwise, this is a fine raunchy teen comedy. It has a lot of the familiar humor. A lot of it works well except these actors are too old. Maybe there are child labor laws involved. Still, they need actors who look like teenagers.