929. LOL (2012)

Starring: Miley Cyrus, Douglas Booth, Ashley Greene

Director: Lisa Azuelos

Running Time: 97 mins

LOL is an American film about a teenage girl who goes through a tough time at the beginning of a new school year, being dumped by her boyfriend, then discovering a good friend of hers has feelings for her, all while trying to prove to her mother that she is an adult and deserves to do what she wants.

 This film is absolutely tedious, painfully cheesy and consistently irritating. It labels itself as some sort of comedic coming-of-age film, however neither of those genres are actually realised, due to the complete lack of laughs, and serious lack of genuine character development for the main girl throughout the entire film.

It’s that very problem that’s the main reason for why this film is just so bad. The main character starts off as a whining petulant teenage girl who is pretty loathsome in every way, and despite the constant lessons that she should be learning from her mother’s advice and the situations that she goes through, for some reason, she doesn’t seem to change at all (up until the last ten seconds of the film when it’s all suddenly fine).

Because of that lack of genuine development, the character is completely tedious to follow along, and her horrible personality qualities make her impossible to support, and whilst you can still try to support the voice of reason in this film, her mother, that’s still as difficult as anything because of the fact that she’s presented in a very negative light. So, there’s effectively no point in trying to slog through this film, because there’s nothing to learn or be impressed by with regards to how the main character changes, leaving it as an ultimately very unsatisfying film.

The one thing that makes the main character even worse is Miley Cyrus’ performance. She honestly just seems bored in this film, and still with a clear hint of Disney left in her, it’s impossible to take her seriously in what she attempts to make a dramatic role, leaving her performance just look like an irritating teenager who thinks everyone is out to get her.

Away from this character, the comedy in this film is also appallingly bad. It’s obvious that the main intention here is not to make a funny film, but a more heartwarming story (which falls flat on its face), but there’s still absolutely nothing in the way of a good joke to make this just a bit more light-hearted, which just makes this even more boring and unengaging, so that’s why it gets a 3.8 overall.