Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging Movie Review
A Fourteen Year Old Girl Endeavors to Master the Art of Snogging
Writer/Director, Gurinder Chadha, follows up her cult classic, Bend it Like Beckham, with an other laugh-riot teen film, in which a group of girls go through the motions of approaching womanhood: choosing the right bra, wearing the right knickers, and learning how to manipulate fickle boys.
Puberty Blues
Georgia Nicolson, Georgia Groome (The Disappeared), is your average fourteen year-old girl, although she would like to think that she’s a bit left of centre. Priding herself on being unique and not succumbing to the pressures of pubescent, high school ideologies, Georgia finds that her efforts are insuring that her blip does not even read on a boy's radar.
With her fifteenth birthday fast approaching, Georgia, along with her equally committed, trusted single companions, Jas and Ellen, resolve to learn the art of the ‘perfect snog’, and snag themselves boyfriends.
Robbie and Tom
When Robbie, Aaron Johnson (The Illusionist), and Tom, Sean Bourke (Friends Forever), two handsome brothers from London, stroll in to town, the girls know that they have found their marks and begin to put in action plans to snap up the duo, before any of the town vixens can.
Jas, Eleanor Tomlinson (Einstein and Eddington), is able to get in with Tom relatively easy, whereas the down-trodden Georgia finds that the competition to win over the affection of the mysterious Robbie, may be too much to bare, with notorious man-eater Slaggy Lindsay, Kimberley Nixon (Wild Child), on the prowl.
The Eternal Adolescent Struggle
Although targeted to a younger teen audience, Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging, perfectly encapsulates what it means to be a teenager, albeit from the point-of-view of a girl.
Using a combination of hilarious dialogue, “Look, I can't go out with you, because...because...because I'm a lesbian”, and grounded situational humor, i.e.: Georgia going to a costume party dressed as a stuffed olive, Chadha is able to put Georgia into a position that one would have found all too familiar, having to grow up in the cutthroat society of high school life, and this familiarity resounds truthfully to an audience of vast demographics.
The absurdity of the quarrels between Georgia and her arch-nemesis, Slaggy Lindsay, as well as between Georgia and her parents, remind us all what it was like to be fourteen years of age; the time when one was always right, parents were severely ‘uncool’, and who one ate lunch with determined their standing in the schools’ pecking order.
The Verdict
This one is definitely not a blokey film! The Alpha Male will sit disappointed through the entire running time, if expecting an explosion or a decapitation. Despite the theme being seemingly targeted at women and young girls, the story unveils itself nicely to appeal to a wide audience. A safe and enjoyable choice, for any man wanting to demonstrate to his lady, his ability to stomach a ‘chick flick’.
3.5/5 Stars
Cast
- Georgia Groome
- Eleanor Tomlinson
- Aaron Johnson
- Sean Bourke
- Kimberley Nixon
Writer: Gurinder Chadha/Paul Mayeda Berges/Wil McRobb/Chris Viscardi/Louis Rennison(Book)
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha/Michelle Fox
Producer:
Paramount Pictures (PG13-100 Minutes)
Filmography information sourced from www.imdb.com
Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging
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Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging
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