A lot of teen movies are just clichs that insult the intelligence of the audience. With that being said, The Girl Next Door is a pretty good movie. It is not going to be a classic, but it’s definitely much better than most of its kind.
The main character is a high school senior named Matt. He is extremely ambitious, but has a less than extensive social life. He and his two best friends don’t do much, other than hang out. One of them is an adult film enthusiast, while the other bears a striking resemblance to John Lennon.
Conveniently, Danielle the hottie house sitter (that’s an official title, folks) moves in. She changes clothes next to an open window, because let’s be honest, don’t we all?
A romance between Danielle and Matt ensues. They spend much of their time together, and oddly enough, it’s pretty believable. They seem pretty well matched.
Then Eli, the porn kid, ruins it all. He shows Matt a porn video that Danielle was in, much to Matt’s chagrin. To make matters worse, Danielle’s ex-boyfriend/producer shows up, and she chooses to go back to her old life.
The first half of the movie is wonderful. The leads are extremely likable and it’s really funny. There’s a lot of situational humor, but it is expected in this type of movie.
The second half wasn’t as good. It gets dramatic and creates a good guy/bad guy scenario between Danielle’s boyfriend and Matt. Prior to this, the movie had been funny and unpredictable. It seems a bad guy was needed and he was the obvious choice.
Another drawback was the friends, Eli and Klitz. They go back and forth between being funny and annoying. Eli says “dude” ad infinitum, which gets annoying and perhaps is to serve as a reminder of how dumb people sound sometimes. But they do have their funny moment at times. You just have to see it.
The soundtrack is a huge advantage to this film. It gives it a reputable quality it would not have had otherwise. The music chosen was brilliant. There are songs by David Bowie, The Who, David Gray and many more. It’s a relief to hear good music and not the latest packaged junk from mainstream music.
The other drawback is it was a bit too long. It is about 1hr and 40 minutes, and it would have done fine if they took off about 15 minutes near the end. Other than that, the characters are all very lovable and The Girl Next Door is a movie worth seeing.
Chris Hodges can be reached at chodges@temple.edu.
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