140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
The comedy is great – it’s very funny. The story is more clunky. Just not really well mapped out. Overall pretty good; could have been more.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of The To Do List:
The short version: The To Do List is a very funny movie, even if it isn’t as solid as it perhaps could have been. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. When it was announced it really seemed like a good concept for a comedy.
The story from rookie writer/director Maggie Carey is semi-autobiographical and a great premise: valedictorian decides to apply her task oriented study style to exploring her sexuality before heading off to college. It works well as a comedic backdrop.
It’s a very refreshing story, largely because the main character, Brandy, is no victim or subject of exploitation. She is an empowered, confident, brilliant young woman who has decided to take control of a part of her life that she has previously ignored. It is a unique character for film, and it’s wonderful to see a new role for a woman on screen; a woman that is in the driver’s seat on her own sexual journey. The matter-of-fact way that Brandy (played by Aubrey Plaza) approaches each sexual encounter is a breath of fresh air.
The problem for me is simply that although that is really all that is going on in this story (which isn’t a problem in of itself) there is an excess of characters and half-developed storylines. There’s enough family dynamic to be its own movie, a love triangle that’s more of a straight line, a surplus of Bill Hader scenes, including a side story with Brandy teaching him to swim, all sorts of workplace hijinks – it’s just all too much. There’s great stuff there, but the movie as a whole feels scattered.
And by the way, the movie takes place in 1993, which in my opinion is the single best thing about it. The setting is great, and if you were college-age around this time (as I was), it’s a blast to relive the dreadful clothes, music & tech. (The closing credits music is MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”, which I previously thought I’d safely reach the end of my life without having to listen to again.)
Finally, I’ve got a few items for Hollywood’s To Do List:
- Teenager comedies need more teenagers. Seriously. Why are these adults playing teens? Aubrey Plaza was around 28 at filming.
- If you’re going to insist on continually having dumb parent parts in movies, at least cast them with dumb people. Clark Gregg & Connie Britton are far too talented to be stuck with these roles.
- Please, more good roles for women being actual women like this one so that it isn’t such a novelty, and so it doesn’t need to come in gross out movies like this.
- On that subject, please, no more scenes of people spitting, throwing up or anything with bodily fluids. It’s foul.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
| Main Cast | Aubrey Plaza Brandy Klark, Johnny Simmons Cameron, Bill Hader Willy, Alia Shawkat Fiona |
| Rating | R |
| Release Date | Fri 26 Jul 2013 UTC |
| Director | Maggie Carey |
| Genres | Comedy |
| Plot | Feeling pressured to become more sexually experienced before she goes to college, Brandy Klark makes a list of things to accomplish before hitting campus in the fall. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 104 |
| Tagline | She’s going from straight A’s to her first F. |
| Writers | Maggie Carey (screenplay) |
| Year | 2013 |
