Feels like a National Lampoon’s comedy. Bartleby ‘B’ Gaines (Justin Long) keeps quiet about his feelings for Monica (Blake Lively,) due to a fear of being exposed, humiliated by rejection. Justin Long is lively, funny and committed to the role. Bartleby, as a character, is witty and more Ferris Bueller than Ferris Bueller.
Schrader (Jonah Hill) is wound way too tightly and is fixated on following his father’s path into Harmon College (and the fraternity.)
After a fake ID scam, ‘B’ is roped into mowing the lawn at Monica’s parents’ house, because she’s having a party, while they’re away. He agrees, because he’s in love with her. Monica is treating ‘B’ like a nerd, but we do not hate her, because she’s not a bitch. She is actually really sweet.
Hoyt Ambrose (Travis Van Winkle) on the other hand, is the anti-nerd, jock, ass-hole, boyfriend to Monica.
'B' writes an anti-conservative essay which gets him rejected from all of the colleges that he applied to. (Quick Question: Why not try a college overseas, “American education is in the shitter.”)
So he decides to create a fake college on paper and gets his friend Schrader to build the website, to fool his dad. Some of Bartleby’s friends didn’t get into college, either. So they join in. And the plan snowballs.
Every good comedy of this style needs an evil villain. Dean Van Horne (Anthony Heald) is excellently putrid. His polar opposite is Ben (Lewis Black.) He used to be a genius, so ‘B’ hires him to pretend to be the Dean of the fake college. Ben is psychotic in a funny way, and a great lecturer of cynical philosophy.
Conservative, sheltered parents put tremendous pressure on kids to over-achieve at all costs; to get good grades, to compete for a good college. Causing themselves stress to the boiling point, over things they don’t even care about. They stress themselves out over things that might not even matter. And they become zombies, slaves to conformity. They are forced to behave like prisoners, and the teachers are guards. In reality, though, education is a service industry. Those kids all paid for an experience. They paid as much as their parents did – paid in fear, blood, sweat and tears, while their parents paid in dollars, on their behalf.
A good college is not a machine. A good college cares for its students. It cares more about the health, well-being and performance of its students, than traditions and discipline. This is college; students should be treated as adults, with respect and compassion, not ruled by fear. Institutions as old as colleges need to stop emulating prisons.
‘B’ and his friends lease an old mental hospital and fix it up as the fake college campus, because his dad wants to drop him off at the college on the first day, when he meets the Dean.
The fun really starts when it turns out that the website for the fake college accepted the applications from hundreds of real students.
Acceptance is just one click away. “But you don’t make it clickable!”
This film makes you feel all sorts of emotions: It’s funny, sexy, tragic, exciting, cool, silly, inspiring, provocative, joyful, and anarchistic. A great soundtrack provides songs that accentuate the mood of every moment.
The story survives on the backs of some great characters. Alongside ‘B’ and Ben are Daryl ‘Hands’ Holloway (Columbus Short) the nice guy with an injured knee, and an interest in phallic wood-sculpting, Maurice (Joe Hursley) the rock star, Glen (Adam Herschman) the crazy fool, Rory (Maria Thayer) the feisty redhead and a few hot chicks.
It’s all about a college with a creative business model and a passionate young founder.
3.5 stars
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