LOL DVD (2012)

SYNOPSIS: In a world connected by YouTube, iTunes, and Facebook, Miley Cyrus stars a teen girl navigating through the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging her protective mother in the fresh coming-of-age comedy LOL.

MOVIE REVIEW:

We’re not sure who had wanted a Hollywood remake of Lisa Azuelos’ ‘LOL: Laughing Out Loud’, the 2008 French teenage comedy that was at best a slick forgettable diversion – but here we are, with an American version that essentially transports the Gallic version to Chicago and recycles lock, stock and barrel the original’s plot points. Oh wait, no wonder, it is none other than Azuelos who is at the helm once again.

At the heart of the tale is once again a high-school girl named Lola (played here by former teen star Miley Cyrus), whose on-off relationship with best friend Kyle (Douglas Booth) becomes both the source of her happiness as well as her frustrations later on. Initially, she grows closer with Kyle to recover from her boyfriend Chad’s (George Finn) indiscretions; but just as Lola and Kyle seem like they might have a chance at a relationship, a misunderstanding causes the former to think that the latter might also be cheating on her.

Meanwhile, Lola starts getting into trouble with her mother Anne (Demi Moore), who suddenly realises that her darling girl has become quite a handful. Not to say that Anne’s much of a good example herself – the single parent is sneaking around with her ex-husband (Thomas Jane), while exploring possibilities with a hunky narcotics cop (Jay Hernandez). The mother-daughter relationship is supposed to be the core dynamic in the movie, but don’t expect anything substantial when too much time is spent trying to set up the other characters around Lola.

There’s Emily (Ashley Hinshaw), a close friend of Lola’s from school who’s not only going through the same teenage pangs, but develops an even messier crush on their Maths teacher; there’s Kyle’s father, who forbids him from playing in a rock band until he gets his grades up; and then there’s Emily’s mother, who is even more conservative than Anne is on Lola. Azuelos and her co-screenwriter Kamir Ainouz try to pack a lot within just 90 mins, but the result of saying more is really ending up saying very much less.

By that we mean all the subplots are pretty much undercooked, following narrative formulas to a T. Ditto for the central relationship between Lola and Anne, which is supposed to be modelled after the real-life struggles mothers have to go through to relate to their teenage daughter – unfortunately for us audiences, Azuelos is once again a stickler for convention, right down to the leadup to the climax which predictably begins with Anne accidentally reading Lola’s confidential diary. Of course, Azuelos packages all these clichés slickly, but there’s only so much one can do with reheated elements.

The same can be said of the cast, who largely give unremarkable performances. It’s been a while since Demi Moore has been seen in the leading role, but this undemanding portrayal of a mother trying to get a grip on her precocious daughter is hardly the welcome shot we hoped. But nothing can quite compare to Cyrus, the once star performer on the Disney channel who has fallen far from grace into this dreck of a movie. She wears pretty much the same one-note expression throughout, and there is absolutely no depth to her portrayal of Lola.

Certainly, the fault isn’t entirely Cyrus’ or Moore’s – ‘LOL’ is too content to recycle its French template, which itself was cobbled together from various Hollywood clichés about teenage angst. It’s little wonder then that there was little fanfare locally or in the United States when this remake opened, which only cements its fate as a pointless, charmless, and soulless teenage dramedy that is best summed up with the following reaction – ‘WTF’. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio reproduces the dialogue clearly, but does little else. Visuals are clear enough, showing no visible grains or defects. Colours and tones are also pretty much well balanced throughout.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Gabriel Chong