issaconeilmason I am a DUFF. I have always wanted to know my role in my group of friends, and now I have a term for it.This is a cute movie, and I can tell that this is one of those movies that I will watch every time it is on Freeform, FX or USA. It has a great cast with a lot of chemistry. Mae Whitman is an amazing actress, and Robbie Amell has charm for days and days. This will become a cult teen classic just like 10 Things I Like About You, Pretty In Pink and She's All That.With all that being said, this movie follows the classic teen formula so don't expect any surprises. Mean Girls and Easy A are a lot smarter than this flick. Also, Bella Thorne is a great actress and she does great with her role in this movie. Bullying is real, but people don't act like her in real life at that age. Every time her character came on screen, I cringed. I don't like to feel uncomfortable watching films like this. The thing that makes it worse is that this character isn't part of original book. I would have rather used that screen time for the main character's relationship with her friends.Still, this is a good film. I will add this to my Saturday afternoon ritual when it starts playing on cable.

sol- Described as "the 'Mean Girls' of this generation" on the Blu-ray back cover, 'The DUFF' is not nearly as fresh and quick-witted as Tiny Fey's iconic high school comedy, but it is fairly decent for what it is. The plot has a teenage social misfit discovering that everyone thinks of her as a "designated ugly fat friend" to her two more traditionally attractive best friends, which prompts her to try to climb up the social ladder at school. The film gets off to a very good start, full of witty narration by lead actress Mae Whitman whose spunky, highly individualistic personality lights up the first few scenes. The less said about the rest of the young actors, the better though, with Bella Thorne in particular paling against Rachel McAdams who played a very similar character in 'Mean Girls', though to be fair, her role in the narrative is quite limited. Curiously enough, the same can be said for those in the adult roles too. Ken Jeong had one of the most fun oddball roles in the TV show 'Community', but here he has little to do other than occasionally banter with Whitman as her favourite teacher. Allison Janney likewise has some funny moments as Whitman's free spirited mother, but her references to 'This is Spinal Tap' and unexpected swearing bits are few and far between. Whatever the case, the film almost works as 'My Fair Lady' variant with Whitman making a deal with her next door neighbour to help her transform, however, the romantic tension to come between the pair is telegraphed from so early on that it becomes a distraction to Whitman's quest to fit in. The film is at least energetic and zany enough (with a ton of social media plugs) that there is never a boring moment to be had. The end credits are especially well done.

mistoppi High school movies are almost always fun. They are completely over the top, because the kind of teen drama in movies doesn't exist in real life, at least not in this form, at least not where I am from. That kind of drama wouldn't suit in a movie, it's not extremely cinematic. (Our drama is so much more vaguer like there was a period that lasted over a month where about four people didn't talk to other five people because both groups thought the other group was angry, while it turned out nobody was angry at anyone.) So, The DUFF has all the highlights of cinematic high school drama: there are brutally mean people, there are so many embarrassing things the main character does that make the viewer want to shut their eyes from all that. It has the kind of pop culture and social media references that won't mean anything in ten years, probably. Some of those are outdated even know. Honestly, they refer to Robert Pattinson, who was in, like, five years ago or something! Someone who never lived through the Twilight phase doesn't necessarily get that. Of course The DUFF also has all the annoying little things in high school movies. Some people hate these things, some people love them because they are so tacky, but I don't know anyone who would say they like this stuff unironically. First of all, plot structure. While after five minutes you can't predict every turn in the movie, it's super easy to see what will happen next, how a certain scene will turn out. The structure is always the same in these movies. Sure, it's kind of fun to predict the events with your friends or so on, but it gets annoying. Another annoying little thing: everyone is the wrong age. Come on, Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell are both almost 30, and they are playing high school students. Why?While this movie typically has am emphasis on teenage romance and crushes, I love how eventually it's about Whitman's character coming to terms with who she is and just... loving herself the way she is, instead of the DUFF being all about Bianca getting the guy or something like that. I think every high school movie, Mean Girls, Clueless, all the others, are mostly focused on the love story and not enough on girls loving themselves and all that. It just was a nice change in the typical story. And it wasn't even just subtext it was exactly how it was. Also typically high school movies love stereotypes and being loyal to them - this means they can have one character outside the stereotypes (usually the main character) and then two-dimensional simple supporting characters. But most of the stereotypes are shattered in the DUFF. Sure, Bianca's neighbour Wes is a jock but there's more to him than that. There are a lot of characters outside stereotypes, or at least their cliques are very hard to place. It's refreshing to see characters instead of stereotypes.The DUFF has probably as many good things as it does bad things. It's refreshing from its typical genre, but it still follows too many clichés. It's an average movie at best, even if it's better than most modern high school movies.

kami-41766 The term Duff - I have never heard of that term. Maybe it exists in society or maybe it was something that Hollywood made up. I'm not positive on that.So The Duff translates to (Designated Ugly Fat Friend). Which is the friend that is less attractive than the others in that particular CLICK. It touches on some very real LIFE facts hidden in the story. CYBER Bullying, Social Media, Clicks, Stereotyping, Awkwardness and just the meanness of high school in general.I felt like this movie was a cross between She's All That and Easy A. It was cute and funny. But it was very predictable.Mae Whitman was a great choice for THE DUFF. She is great with one liners and usually plays the girl that is a bit odd, different or just does her own thing. And she always plays it well.And of course this movie has Robbie Amell who is very nice to look at. I think a lot of teenage girls would really like this movie.