I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009)

We wanted to like this, but did not have high hopes as the reviews were particularly savage (here's one). Larry Doyle adapted his 2007 novel to the screen, after writing for The Simpsons, Beavis and Butt-Head, and The New Yorker and Esquire magazines, among others. The book won the Thurber Humor Prize last year, and people I trust have assured me that it's a very good, very funny read, which I will be starting soon. But the movie? Meh. Maybe the problem was translating the high school recollections of a then-40-something writer into a current teen movie, with almost as much property damage as Public Enemies. I give director Chris Columbus (I LOVED Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)) a little credit for the gimmick of casting Alan Ruck from Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) as the father of lead character Denis (Paul Rust, to be seen later this year in two very different releases: Quentin Tarentino's nasty holocaust revenge drama Inglourious Basterds and a mock-umentary about love called Paper Heart), and it's always nice to see alumni of Freaks & Geeks, this time Samm Levine as the convenience store clerk. Read the book instead, and go see Larry Doyle if he makes an appearance in your neck of the woods!