Miley Cyrus plays Lola, a young girl navigating her way through a whole string of adolescent ordeals, like surviving a break-up with her boyfriend Chad (George Finn), with the support of her two BFFs, Emily (Ashley Hinshaw) and Janice (Lina Esco). She finds a new flame in Kyle (Douglas Booth), who is Chad`s best friend and bandmate, and their budding romance is, of course, not well received by Chad, because hooking up with your buddy`s ex is not what bros do to each other. She also does a lot of teenagey stuff, like, ya know, drawing hearts on school walls with her and her boyfriend`s names on it, and bitching a whole lot about other friends. Anne, her loving but controlling mum, also constantly opposes her decisions, making it difficult for her to be cool, because really, that`s all teenagers care about.
In one of the early scenes in the movie, Lola waltzes into the toilet where her mother is naked. In the bathtub. With her naked young kid. We`re not sure which world the director is born in, but there is something quite wrong about a nude mother splashing around with her child. Seemingly oblivious to this, Lola then proceeds to undress herself, before earning the shocked disapproval of her mum, who dislikes the Brazilian wax she got because she doesn`t want Lola “acting like a porn star. It seems rather bewildering to us that Lola would even remotely risk her mum finding out about her waxing her loins, seeing as how her mum is an uptight control freak.
This sort of inanity continues through the film, with tons of lapses in common sense. Despite or occasionally, because of this, the film does offer up some hearty laughs. Ashley Hinshaw is hilarious as Emily, Lola`s best friend who has the hots for her handsome mathematics teacher; she would eventually hook up with Max (Adam G. Sevani), the class geek, who is also pretty much the class clown. Her scenes are the most balls-out bonkers of the lot, and a hoot to watch. Sevani also exudes a geeky charm to his character. Pity, however, that most of the other cast, particularly Miley Cyrus, are pretty lifeless actors.
The film works best as a comedy when featuring the crazy antics of hormonally-charged teenagers, like when Emily feigns cyber sex with a man, and when she tries futilely to make a move on her teacher. It is when it tries too hard to capture the tension between well-meaning parents and rebellious children that everything goes haywire.
Summary: Occasionally hilarious, and mostly silly.
Rating: 2.5/5 Raymond Tan