Marval Movie

As our leading character tells us at the start of the movie labels have become mixed, or at least  they have merged. What was once a time when people were clearly defined as one label and that was it people can be more than one thing. There are still Jocks, nerds, beauty-queens etc. But now is the time where one can also be another.

In the movie we follow Bianca a not that popular girl in High School that has two friends, Casey (Bianca Santos) and Jess (Skyler Samuels) two much more pretty and desired girls. It isn't until they are at a party that Bianca realizes what she is. As put very bluntly to her by a popular boy Wes Rush (also her life long neighbor) that she is her friends "DUFF " a "Designated Ugly Fat Friend." 

The news naturally strikes her so she seeks a better position in school life. So being that he was the only one to be honest with her, she asks him to transform her from a DUFF to "the datable one." She must of course help him pass science.

Mae Whitman as Bianca truly is wonderful, she is socially awkward and at more than a few times her own worst enemy but is smart and sassy. I am a huge fan of her voice work but its great to see she is a talent in-front of the camera as well as behind the microphone. Robbie Amell Brings so much likeability and charisma to this character. He is an idiot most of the time but he is also very charming and has an understanding of people. On their own these two are really nice but put them together and they are so much fun, this is one of those cases of chemistry on-screen.

Our villain is right out of the plastic page of evilness, this one takes the form of Madison Morgan (Bella Thorne) a very pretty, two-faced girl that thinks if she can own High School then it will be smooth sailing for the rest of her life. One of Bianca's teachers is Mr. Arthur (Ken Jeong) a very off-beat educator that supervises the school news paper and for the people that have seen his work on Community, you will probably be smiling throughout his scenes, but even with his craziness he still believes in his students. Principal Buchanan (Romany Malco) is one of those out-of-touch authority figures over kids that I will always love, there are examples of these characters being annoying but this is a good one.

As is the point of the movie one character can indeed be one thing and can be categorized as that, but they are still more. This might be a new approach for movies, taking the classic stereotypes of movie characters but then you mix and match them with others. And when you do that you might just get something new.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 4