What’s Aged the Worst?
Marianne's Christian stereotype; Griffith and Micah chlamydia plotline; Chip adoption jokes; Huckleberry Finn references
In the discussion (14)
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:04Read transcript
- Number one: Amanda Bynes's character as a negatively portrayed Christian, recalling One Tree Hill's clean teens.
- Marianne resonated because a Fellowship of Christian Athletes group at the speaker's school behaved just like her and got meaner through high school. — Shea Serrano
- Bynes is super funny and a really good actress, which makes her not taking pride in the work sad. — Shea Serrano
- Marianne's group is partly plot necessity, needing teens believably outraged by one instance of sex; the speaker also had FCA and got sex education through a strain of Christianity, and understood the choice as a nod to The Scarlet Letter and puritanical heritage. — Amanda Dobbins
- The rose-petal sex-ed demonstration is recalled.
- Very pro-Amanda Bynes and fond of the performance, but tying Marianne's busybody ideology to her Christianity felt like stereotyping; coming from the Upper West Side and a large public school, Christianity just gets a bad rap in media. — Juliet Litman
- A joke offers to email an FCA application to make her postgraduate chapter chairman.
- The movie gets away with a fundamental problem: that a virginity rumor would be a scandal, would not be shut down immediately on Facebook, and would not become uglier bullying; it falls apart if you think too hard.
- A teen movie in 2020 would address bullying; here the biggest slight is being forgotten, though Marianne is clearly the bully.
- Olive being unfazed by Marianne continues the Tracy Flick line through Booksmart's Beanie Feldstein character; the formerly ignored now hold the power, a self-described reading-too-far.
- Nominated for aged worst: the Mrs. Griffith and Micah plotline, where the guidance counselor sleeps with an of-age student, gives him chlamydia, and her marriage to Thomas Haden Church's teacher ends; unnecessary even if the movie telegraphs it is wrong.
- The most sympathy goes to Thomas Haden Church's character, whose marriage is ruined while everyone else is fine. — Juliet Litman
- Chip, Olive's undeveloped adopted little brother: Tucci's adoption jokes, like asking where he is from originally, feel aimed at the audience rather than a 10-year-old.
- Everything tied to Huckleberry Finn is super weird: Olive's line about not knowing anyone who snuck off with a hulking black man and the ending where Brandon runs off with his black boyfriend are called offensive and dehumanizing, a bizarre characterization of the novel that could easily have been edited out.