"The DUFF" ★★★
A Review by Kevin Powers
"When I was in high school in the 90s, we didn't have emojis. We had to use actual facial expressions." - Mr. Filmore (Chris Wylde) in "The DUFF"
I'm a sucker for teen movies, even though I'm at a point now, where, when I see teen comedies, I relate to the teachers more than the students. I feel old, yet I'm only four years older than the star of the new teen comedy, "The DUFF." Our heroine, Bianca Piper (Mae Whitman), is a senior in high school. At 26, Whitman totally works as an 18-year-old, and she, along with the great Allison Janney, who plays her mother, Dottie, is what keeps this movie afloat.
A veteran supporting actress on TV, most notably as "Bland" Ann Veal, or Michael Cera's girlfriend, in "Arrested Development" and as Lauren Graham's daughter in NBC's "Parenthood," and even
GREAT teen movies like "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (2012), Whitman gets the opportunity to carry a movie here. She succeeds. It's not as game-changingly good as Emma Stone's work in the somewhat similar teen comedy, "Easy A" (2010), but Whitman has an endearing presence that works for me.