The Duff Movie Review

So last night we went out on a total GNO, like we usually do for page to premieres... We got on our bedroom slippers, threw on some yoga pants, grabbed some candy and headed out to our local theater for the 7oclock showing of The Duff. For those of you that might not know this movie is based off a book, The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger. From the previews, we knew that this was going to be a loose adaptation of the book, but we were excited nonetheless. 

The book follows 17-year-old Bianca Piper. She's the average looking, smart, quirky girl in her group of friends. Bianca has never had a problem being the less noticeable girl in the group until one night the most popular jock in school, Wesley Rush, tells her shes the "DUFF". 

The movie did an EXCELLENT job of taking what was on the pages of Keplinger's book and making it into something more. We went into this knowing that it was going be a "new age" version of Mean Girls, and suspected that's probably where it would stop and would more than likely fall on the side of way to grilled cheesy... BUT, this movie turned out to be a nice surprise. It was funny, witty, had great chosen actors, and went better than the book did. We spent most of the movie laughing our heads off at the witty jokes. I (Leah) know that I could relate to Bianca on SO many levels and every time she would say or do something hilariously awkward I would be like "OMG THAT IS SO ME" in my head!

Robbie Amell did an amazing job portraying jock turned nice guy Wesley, while giving his character both life

and humor. Skyler Samuels and Bianca Santos who played her best friends Casey and Jess were both sweet and well chosen sub characters. Bella Thorne who plays Madison, Bianca enemy in the film was someone I (Angela) thought was an interesting and not-so-good fit for the new Regina George in this movie. I again found myself pleasantly surprised. She ended up playing the part rather well. There's no doubt though who stole the show;  yes it was Ms. Bianca Piper herself. Mae Whitman was the perfect choice to play Bianca. She was funny, quirky, and took the character to the next level. She was just overall well portrayed. The movie also does a really great job with its supporting characters, such as teachers and Bianca's mom. They add an extra level of funny to the plot that you don't expect.

The movie itself was rocking just under two hours and I think that was the perfect length for this film. The Duff movie did an amazing job capturing what high meanness is really like all while managing to make audiences laugh. I know a lot of people are saying that this movie seems mean because it's focusing around just a negative word, but well let you know first hand it's not! It's just a coming of age story that shows a girl figuring out that high-school doesn't define you. You definitely have to not judge the book or the movie by the cover on this one. It starts out focusing on the negative but by the end you have a feel good story that leaves you walking away with a good message about being yourself.


Angela's Rating- 10/10 Stars (I liked it way better than the book)
Leah's Rating- 10/10 stars (Me too!!)

The Duff by Kody Keplinger

I'd never heard of this book until I saw a bunch of posts on IG about how it is becoming a movie. I love reading books then going to the movie premiere, so I decided to pick this one up. If you read the back cover of the book, it will literally tell you the entire plot of the story. Literally.

Ok, so let me start by saying this book was cute. It's definitely a fluff kind of read that you want when your brain feels like it can't compute anything and you need something easy and fun to read... Kind of like watching chick flicks on Lifetime. If you have ever been a teenage girl, you can more than likely relate to the main character, Bianca. If you are the cynical, sarcastic one out of your group of friends, you will most likely be able to relate to Bianca. She is a high school senior who is pretty average looking but is very smart. She has a tough outershell made of ssarcasmthat she uses to bottle up all of her feelings. She also has two gorgeous blond best friends that look like they should be on the cover of Teen People (is that even still around?). Basically, Bianca comes on some hard times in her personal life. Parents are divorcing, her long time crush has a girlfriend, her dad has a drinking problem, etc. She decides to distract herself from all of her problems by setting up a friends with benefits relationship with the school's gorgeous, rich manwhore, Wesley, who has not so affectionately nicknamed her "duffy" because she is the Duff (designated ugly fat friend) of her friend group. I mean, who wouldn't want to hook up with someone who insults you at every chance you get? Oh that crazy self esteem, who needs ya! Anyway, so they hook up a lot... A lot, a lot. But as FWB situations ALWAYS go, feelings eventually come in to play. Bianca knows Wesley will never like her because she will always be Duffy to him. On top of that, she has been basically ditching her friends for him and hiding all of the drama going on in her life from them, so they are all mad at each other. Yadda yadda yadda lots of drama later, happy ending.

I can seriously say that I can give this review without fear of spoilers because everything you could possibly want to know is on the back cover of the book. The whole thing is soooooooooo predictable that you pretty much know exactly what's going to happen as soon as you meet all the characters. The thing I disliked the most about the book was Bianca's inner monologue consisting of "He could never like me, right? Girls like me are destined to be the Monica Lewinskys of the world, not the politician's wife." It's really eyeroll worthy for the most part.

I do think it will make a cute movie because it will be very Mean Girl-ish with hotties and funny high school drama. Even though the book was mediocre at best, I'll definitely be seeing the movie in theaters. This isn't the type of book where you feel like you're going to miss something if you don't read the book first (especially since by the looks of the movie trailer, they just used the book as a very loose guideline... Actually I'm not even sure they are going to follow the book at all), so I wouldn't worry too much about it. That being said, it is an easy read and a good fluffy filler, so if you want something that doesn't require a lot of thinking and will give you a few laughs, give it a shot.

3/5 stars