HELLO EVERYONE!

I’m so excited to bring you today’s post. Just yesterday, I attended an early pre-screening of the movie adaptation of Kody Keplinger’s YA novel, The DUFF. I read the book a few years ago, and was excited to see the movie, especially since it has Robbie Amell (!!) and one of my favorite actresses, Mae Whitman. Thanks to a dear friend of mine, Chaysen (check out her blog at here), I was able to not only see the movie early, but I was also able to meet a few members of the cast!

Being a total goofball with the cutout of Robbie Amell before the screening.

It was the EASIEST screening I’ve ever been to. I waited in line for a mere two hours, headed into the theater, and found my seat.

I had heard rumors and such that members of the cast were going to show up, and I was SO excited when Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Nick Eversman and Bianca A Santos showed up to introduce the movie.

They were all really excited, telling us that they hoped we liked the movie and to share it with everyone (hmmm, I think that’s what I’m doing now haha), and to hang out after the movie, because they’d be around to take pictures and such. To say I was excited would be a total understatement.

The movie played and was fantastic, and the review for that is below! We left the theater, and got in line to meet Bianca, Nick and Robbie!

They were all SO nice, which was good because I was kind of beyond fangirling at that point. Robbie is a huge celebrity crush of mine, especially since I loved loved loved The Tomorrow People. We took some pictures and I was so glad to finally meet Robbie, get a hug (come on, I’m human haha) and told him how much I loved The Tomorrow People.

Somehow I managed to ask him for a selfie too. Pretty proud of myself on that one!

I also was able to meet Robbie’s fiance, Italia Ricci, who is an actress and is on the totally awesome show, Chasing Life, on ABC Family. I felt SO bad interrupting her conversation but she was super sweet about it.

I was about halfway out of the theater when I realized that I didn’t even ASK for Robbie’s (or Bianca’s or Nick’s) autograph and I felt like kind of a goofball again. Luckily, I was checking my instagram as I walked out and noticed that my dear friend, Mandy from The Romance Bookie, had commented on a photo. We had never technically, officially met in real life, so I headed back in theater, hung out with her and her mom for a bit and was able to get one more picture with the cast AND my autographs!

I know, I know. All I had was an index card. Hey, its better than nothing! I couldn’t find the book anywhere (the new, movie tie-in edition hits bookstores this coming Tuesday!).

Now for the fun part: The REVIEW!

Rated: 

PG-13

Directed By:

Ari Sandel

Starring: 

Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Bianca A Santos, Nick Eversman, Allison Janney, Skyler Samuels. See full list here.

IMDB Synopsis:

Bianca is a content high school senior whose world is shattered when she learns the student body knows her as ‘The DUFF’ (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) to her prettier, more popular friends. Now, despite the words of caution from her favorite teacher, she puts aside the potential distraction of her crush, Toby, and enlists Wesley, a slick but charming jock, to help reinvent herself. To save her senior year from turning into a total disaster, Bianca must find the confidence to overthrow the school’s ruthless label maker Madison and remind everyone that no matter what people look or act like, we are all someone’s DUFF.

*     *     *     *

I read this book awhile ago, so while I had a good grasp of the plot, I wanted to reread it before the movie. I read about half the night before the screening and the other half right after, just to refresh my memory. The movie was INCREDIBLY different from the book, but in a way, it made a lot of sense.

The movie does change a lot about the book. If you’re a purist, you’ll probably have a problem with that. I’m not a huge purist, and I always think the essence of the story is more important than anything else. In the movie, Bianca is told she’s a DUFF, and it becomes an obsession with her. She pushes away her friends, and enlists the help of sexy, popular football captain to help her drop that DUFF moniker. Hilarity ensues, there’s lots of kissing, and it all wraps up for a seriously fun movie. The movie tones it down on some of the things that occur in the book but it makes sense.

And the movie is SERIOUSLY funny. I laughed out loud several times. It was refreshing and fun to see a romance build between characters in a really hilarious way. Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell have incredible chemistry on screen and they work together to create a very believable and VERY funny romance, which just creates an incredibly amusing movie. I also like that they keep the sort of dirty jokes and swearing that is so prevalent in the books, since you’re in Bianca’s mind. It fits in the movie and it keeps true to the characters that Kody created.

In the end, what is really important about this movie, what really made me like it so much was that it kept the essence of the story that Kody created: its not about the labels that we create, especially the DUFF. Bianca spends the entire story obsessed with being the DUFF, and trying to break out of the mold just to figure out that its okay to be the DUFF, because we all are. There is always going to be someone prettier and smarter and more talented than us. We’re always going to find someone better than us, but we have to find that confidence in ourselves and that’s what makes us special. They took that from the book and made it a huge part of the movie and I was really happy about that.

There was a line in the movie, I can’t remember exactly, I’ll have to make note of it when I see it in theaters, but Bianca’s mom says something along the lines of “You’re a weirdo but its okay” and that really stood out to me. Its okay to be a weirdo because someone out there is going to LOVE the weirdo in you or me or anyone!

Rating: 

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Bottom Line: 

The bottom line is this: the movie is SUPER funny, incredibly sweet and definitely one that I’ll see once it hits theaters and one that I definitely want on my shelves when it hits the stores many months from now. I encourage you all to go see it, not just because its a great movie but every YA movie needs as much support as possible. Remember guys, if we don’t get to the theaters and support those YA adaptations, they’re going to stop making them and we won’t see them anymore. So head out to the theaters on February 20th and enjoy this super fun movie :)