F the Prom
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Warning! Mature Content!
This following work contains material and themes that may include coarse language (albeit censored due to New Qualitipedia rules), sexual references, and/or graphic violent images that may be disturbing to some viewers. |
|
| F the Prom | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 When will YouTubers learn that using high school prom as its main setting and social media references are already terrible ideas enough for a movie?
| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
F the Prom, also known as F*&% the Prom, is a 2017 American teen comedy film directed and produced by Benny Fine and written by him, Rafi Fine, and Molly Prather. Released online and on-demand on December 5, 2017, the film stars Danielle Campbell, Joel Courtney, Madelaine Petsch, and Cameron Palatas, with Meg DeLacy, Nicholle Tom, Richard Karn, Jill Cimorelli, Luke Bilyk, Brendan Calton, Michael Chey, Adan Allende, Diamond White, Cheri Oteri and Ian Ziering in supporting roles.
Plot
Maddy and Cole were inseparable friends until high school started and Maddy became the most popular girl on campus; when she finds herself suddenly single and heartbroken, Maddy reconnects with Cole, and they conspire to destroy the prom.
Why It'll Make You Say "F This Movie!"
- The themes presented in the movie are very unoriginal, most notably the plot: a group of unpopular teenagers plans to get back at the popular kids as revenge for being bullied, which has been done to death. Just watching the trailer, you can know what the plot is and how it ends.
- The movie also copies elements from good high school movies like Mean Girls, American Pie, Revenge of the Nerds, Can't Hardly Wait, and The Breakfast Club.
- The writing is very unrealistic, since the Fine brothers, the writers of the film, were homeschooled:
- The movie presents high school as a popularity contest, but it's executed abysmally unlike other school-related media such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
- The popular kids are depicted as religious figures that other students worship, while the unpopular kids are treated as outcasts that even the staff hate.
- While the prom is mostly the main plot point, not wanting to go isn't supposed to be a big deal, because everyone has a choice to join or not.
- It's one of those unrealistic movies where the “sensually attractive people know they’re attractive. Movies like Superbad actually got kids who weren’t conventionally attractive. They understood why a kid might be unpopular. This film tries to make us believe that kids who are usually popular are somehow hated for dumb reasons.
- This film is very mean-spirited and they made Cole into a harmless punching bag. For example, they bullied and called him "tighty" at Cole for wearing white briefs, which is very nonsensical since that, in reality, some boys can either wear boxers or briefs.
- The film is very out of touch, with the opening credits being just text effects with emojis at the end.
- Atrocious acting: no one out of the whole cast talks or acts like a real person.
- None of the characters are even close to being likable; in fact, they're more like caricatures or stereotypes than characters. as none of them are aware that their actions have consequences:
- The worst example is Cole's father, who is nothing but an abusive, entitled, perverted jerk who is mostly aware and proud of what he is doing.
- Not helping that it's mostly sex on his mind, and doesn't care if others feel uncomfortable by his misuse of words.
- He's also a pathetic and narcissistic loser. He would change for the better if he were to become prom king, because one, prom king is more of a gimmick in the event and would hardly touch upon your reputation and success in the future, and two, even if he were to become one, it still doesn't excuse his disgusting and terrible behavior as a person. Not to mention, the reason why his wife left him.
- Sweats is also another victim of this; his habit is nothing more than being sweaty because of his uncontrollable glandular tissues, which causes other students to avoid him.
- As said earlier, most of the popular kids are portrayed as clichéd, entitled pricks with no reason to torment others.
- Principal Statzill mocks the unpopular kids, calls students "sexy" in a creepy way, and even allows statutory rape in the school, which makes you wonder why she hasn't been fired yet and how she was hired in the first place. Also, she is beyond annoying to the point where you want to rip your ears off.
- Kane, one of the popular kids, has no respect for anyone, doesn't feel guilty that he cheated on his girlfriend Maddie, and somehow is seen as an idol by everyone else. And to top it off, he gets redemption at the end with no explanation or apology.
- Benny Fine wanted to add drama to the film he claimed that "no comedy has done before" but instead tries too hard to be emotional; the movie expects the audience to believe that the characters' actions are in the right, except it makes them much more unlikable than they already are.
- The worst example is Cole's father, who is nothing but an abusive, entitled, perverted jerk who is mostly aware and proud of what he is doing.
- Showing and telling: The movie keeps having characters explaining their own flaws and not having them do the stuff they have done in that respective flaw, which is also another way of releasing exposition.
- It's an awful looking film, there's almost no bright in the colors and most of the film is displayed in a dark tone color palette.
- The editing feels amateur and lazy. The flashbacks are just recycled clips from the beginning of the film, but with an orange hue, which again, looks ugly.
- The soundtrack is literally just stock music from YouTube.
- Several pointless scenes that serve nothing other than to pad out the runtime.
- Pointless references to Fullmetal Alchemist and Guardians of the Galaxy to appear hip with its target audience.
- Laughable dialogue, including the memes that were relevant back in the 2010s:
- "What's up, BROOOO!"
- "On fleek."
- "U mad bro?"
- "You're a selfie virgin? A sergin?"
- "We didn't shoot up the school, none of us committed suicide. And here we are with these newfound of communication, not to bring us together, but to rip each other apart! What is up with that?"
- Cruel and disturbing jokes, with Cole's father infamously ordering his own son to stop trying to peek at Maddie's nipples, when she is supposed to be around fourteen or fifteen years old; thus, the joke is considered pedophilia.
- In another scene, Statzill is okay with students raping each other as long as they don't get caught. This joke even aged poorly when you realize this film was released the same year as the #MeToo movement.
- One homophobic joke is where the basketball team, including the teacher, is backing away from the gay kid.
- When the jokes aren't offensive, it tries to add some dead space or corny one-liners that don't seem humorous.
- With Maddie and Cole having a fight about her problems during her years of high school, when it is just about Maddie betraying Cole and his friends, and going back to her ex-boyfriend, who is nothing but a bully and an asshole. How do we even feel sympathy for Maddie? And why would she go back to the man who cheated on her and made her life miserable?
- While satisfying, Cole calling out Maddie for being a bad person, and never doing anything to stop the popular kids from bullying them makes no sense since she had nothing to do with the bullying.
- Plenty of missed opportunities:
- Rather than just calling his dad for being "weird" and staying quiet while his dad was explaining what would have happened if he were to become prom king, Cole should've called out his own dad for being a disgusting pervert, then explains as to why Cole himself hated his own dad, and lastly, tells him: "Maybe if you weren't such a selfish asshole who is stuck in the past, then you wouldn't be such a loser, and mom would never have left you.".
- The unpopular kids' plan to ruin prom night, which is supposed to be the movie's climax and we never know anything about it until the third act, is very illogical and pure nonsense. Their plan is to rig the votes so that Maddie could win, drug the popular mean girl to give her diarrhea (an overused cliché), send gay pictures to the jocks and send pictures of former President Donald Trump to the gay kids to make them hate each other (which doesn't make sense, because whether you like Donald Trump or not, this prank doesn't work on its own. Not even as a homophobic remark.), then tar and feather Maddie to humiliate her on stage.
- This scene alone makes it a lot harder to root for the good guys since they come up with a revenge plan by tormenting the bullies and ruining their prom night, making the prey no better than their hunters.
- The ending is terrible: both Cole and Maddie get back together and they make up for their love of each other with a cheesy line, even after the things Maddie had done.
- The main lesson of the film is: "If you get bullied, bully them back." which is an unethical and irresponsible way for students who are victims of bullying.
The Only Redeeming Quality
- The drawings done by one of the characters are nice to look at and are easily the only good thing about this movie.
Reception
F the Prom received generally negative reviews; it has a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.2/10 on IMDb.
Videos
Comments
Loading comments...