Thursday, April 15, 2004  

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I saw The Girl Next Door, and... it's actually really funny. For those not in the know, it's about a boring-but-well-meaning overachiever in high school who falls in love with the girl next door. Naturally, not only does she turn out to be a troublemaker who falls right back in love with him, he also finds out later that she's a former porn star. How will madness this go over with our straight-shooting by-the-book hero? Cue insanity and hilarity. Yeah, it's pretty formulaic. But it's clever, funny, fairly raunchy (in a clean way -- go figure), has a kicking soundtrack, and it's tinged with an undertone of sweetness that's light enough to make you go "awww" rather than "bleeeeech".

Incidentally, one of the main character's best friends in the film is patterned after my cousin Kavi. Seriously. I swear, it's him. Obsessed with porn. Obsessed with sex. Likes to say "So did you bang her?" whenever you mention seeing anyone vaguely good-looking, only to follow it up with "Be a man! I would have!" when you reply in the negative every time (and like Kavi, he definitely wouldn't have followed his own advice). It's so close I'm honestly a little worried.

It's also hard to dislike a movie with such a surprisingly good soundtrack. Teen/high school comedies are usually filled with current chart-toppers -- and rightly so, you'd figure. But within the first 10 minutes, you hear David Bowie/Queen's Under Pressure and Echo and the Bunnymen classic The Killing Moon. You know you're in for a good time after that.

Oh, and Elisha Cuthbert is really, really pretty in it.

Posted at 4:30 AM

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