2047. Not Cool (2014)

Starring: Shane Dawson, Cherami Leigh, Michelle Veintimilla

Director: Shane Dawson

Running Time: 93 mins

Not Cool is an American film about a group of teenagers who spend their Thanksgiving encountering all sorts of modern day drama and romance.

For a film that’s actually got some decent production quality, semi-bearable acting and fairly competent directing (compared to other abhorrent movies), it’s quite an achievement to get such a low rating. Made by YouTube star Shane Dawson, the film is the worst combination of all the very stereotypes of the young millenial generation, proving not only a dull, unfunny and annoying watch, but a morally bankrupt, hateful, often even revolting film that will leave you fearing for the future of humanity if this is the generation that’s going to rule the world some day.

Now, I’ve always been pretty fuddy-duddy when it comes to these teen party movies – and I was born in 1997, making me slap bang in the middle of the target audience. American Pie, Mean Girls and more have always frustrated and annoyed me to the core, while the likes of even lower-rated monstrosities such as From Justin To Kelly just disgusted me with their total lack of decency and moral compass.

But in comparison to Not Cool, all of those films are saintly and fiercely intelligent masterpieces. Much like fellow YouTuber films, including Smosh: The Movie and Laid In America, Not Cool proves that the entertainment factor of 10 minute videos can’t be extended to a feature-length movie, because there just isn’t the level of ingenuity or intelligence to make it work.

This is the very worst example of that, as it takes what is the most generic teen rom-com story and manages to make it worse than any film before it (and there are a fair few candidates in that category). It has absolutely no imagination, meaning the story is completely predictable and very, very dull, while it clearly has no aptitude for intelligent, or simply even funny comedy, as it bombards you with a barrage of horrifically explicit, mean-spirited and very uncomfortable ‘humour’ from beginning to end, all of which will really make you want to end it all there and then.

Not only does the story glamourise and glorify all sorts of very loosely-moralled and excessively promiscuous and downright uncivilised behaviour, but it also goes a step further and ends up actively encouraging the likes of drug use, shoplifting, prostitution, making fun of disabled people and even racism.

And this has nothing to do with any sort of political correctness. Irreverent and offensive comedy can be the very best sort if done intelligently, but Not Cool managed to offend me and disgust me in ways that I didn’t even know were possible, ranging from its downright offensive and distasteful sense of humour, to some of the most horrible and nasty characters that you can imagine being written, all of which is still played up in the film as if it’s all a good bit of fun.

So, not only is the film badly written in general, with a dull and pointless story that will bore and annoy you within seconds of it all starting, but it manages to go one step further and prove to be one of the most morally deficient and simply indecent films that you’ll ever see, with the fact that it’s glamourised as a fun way of life for young people nowadays making things even worse.

Maybe I’m just an outsider to the modern world, but I’m one hundred percent sure that the majority of our generation is intelligent and decent, and would surely be just as appalled by the absolute mess that Not Cool is, however the film’s unrelentingly immoral nature has genuinely made me question the sanity of an entire generation, something I’ve never felt before.

As a result, Not Cool is an inexcusably bad film, and deserves the lowest of the low when it comes to acclaim or any sort of recognition.

However, as horrific and unapologetically disgusting as its story is, I reluctantly still have to give it credit for being a fairly well-made and competent film.

In comparison to other films at the bottom end of the spectrum, such as Thankskilling 3 and Car’s Life 2, Not Cool has production quality that’s light years better, furthered by what appears to be fairly competent directing and acting (relatively speaking).

Not Cool has at least has a bit of energy to it, as well as a traditional story structure that at least doesn’t destroy and exhaust you in ways that those lower-rated films do, meaning that (as horrible as it is to experience), it doesn’t reach the same level of ‘bad movie’, but is rather more of an ‘evil movie’.

Overall, I hated pretty much every moment of Not Cool. I don’t know why this YouTuber was allowed to make a movie and release it given this is the final product, a morally horrifying and endlessly infuriating mess of a film that will genuinely make you fear for the future of humanity. Yes, its production quality is fine, and there are far worse-made films out there, but none that will quite depress and appal you in the same way as this, and that’s why I’m giving it a -1.5.