Prom Dates
Disney+ serves up a shrill, hit-and-miss coming-out farce with the accent on casual sex, profanity, drugs and projectile vomiting.
Dressed to spill: Julia Lester and Antonia Gentry
Behind the crudeness of Kim O. Nguyen’s scrappy high school farce is a serious message. In fact, there are several momentous morals, all coated in the familiar blanket of senior year cliché. There is certainly an autobiographical feel in the screenplay by stand-up comedian D.J. Mausner, who puts her protagonist, the awkward but outspoken Hannah (Julia Lester), in the spotlight usually reserved for Hanna Montana, or at least Hanna Montana’s alter ego Miley Stewart (once played by Miley Cyrus). Here, Hannah is an overweight senior in a lifelong friendship with the attractive Jess (Antonia Gentry), both of whom are looking for a date to the senior prom. But not only is Prom Dates largely colour-blind (there is a healthy mix of racial types), but also blind to body size.
Hannah’s main issue is not her look, but her sexuality, as she’s afraid to tell her best friend that she’s lesbian. Jess’s dark secret is that she’s slept with Hannah’s brother Jacob (JT Neal) – ergh! – and so a variety of Shakespearean misunderstandings ensue, with increasing implausibility. The issue is not Hannah’s lesbianism but her lack of honesty and self-confidence. All this was covered with greater aplomb in Ryan Murphy’s glorious musical The Prom, although, unlike James Corden, Julia Lester is in fact gay. And so Prom Dates has the curious distinction of being both passionately woke and yet coarsely adolescent. Rated 16+ on Disney+, it is replete with foul language, nob jokes, beer bongs, hard drugs and projectile vomiting, although it is surprisingly coy when it comes to modest nudity.
Occasionally, the Vietnam-born director Kim O. Nguyen hits a home run with a piece of comedy business or a perfectly executed line, but more often her film is a pantomimic mess. Hannah’s devoted boyfriend Greg (Kenny Ridwan) is a mortifying caricature, and an old pro like John Michael Higgins as the school principal is just embarrassing. There’s the standard pop-driven soundtrack (the Chicano Punk band Go Betty Go is prominent), gamely plugging the tonal gaps like sticking plaster on a leaking dyke. If only Mausner and Nguyen had dared to serve up one empathetic or credible character, we might have found something to laugh at – or with. And Nguyen should know better, having directed three episodes of the considerably wittier and more canny Never Have I Ever… on Netflix.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Julia Lester, Antonia Gentry, Kenny Ridwan, JT Neal, Jordan Buhat, Zión Moreno, John Michael Higgins, Chelsea Handler, Terry Hu, Emery Kelly, Leonardo Cecchi, Arianna Rivas, Kiss (uncredited).
Dir Kim O. Nguyen, Pro Molle DeBartolo, Mickey Liddell, Pete Shilaimon, Kevin Hart, Bryan Smiley, Luke Kelly-Clyne, Jeremy Garelick and Will Phelps, Screenplay D.J. Mausner, Ph Bradford Lipson, Pro Des Eve McCarney, Ed Daniel Reitzenstein, Music Matthew Compton, Costumes Laura Barreto.
LD Entertainment/Hartbeat Productions/American High-Disney+.
86 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 3 May 2024. Cert. 16+.
