6 - The Jerk Theory

    A teen gets lots of girls by acting like a jerk, until a girl resists his charms, and he has to be himself.
    Netflix has a puzzling summary for this movie.  “An aspiring recording artist is burned by a bad relationship experience and decides to ditch his nice-guy image and be a jerk”
    This is a very strange description, since it seems to be what happens before the movie begins.  As I watched this, I sank into more and more confusion about who the audience for this movie is.  The premise sounds like a teen romance movie.  But the humor is strangely sophomoric, and yet still fairly raunchy.  But it never gets too raunchy: this is a PG-13 movie.
    The idea that I came to was that this is intended to be a movie that bridges the innocence of the Disney projects like Camp Rock into the teen sex comedies of American Pie.
    The cast is mostly pretty bad, except for two people who shine in supporting parts - Danny Bonaduce has a nice cameo, and Tom Arnold does everything he can with the material he’s given.  This leads me to the next problem.  It’s a comedy, and I can tell that there’s some material here that’s funny, but the execution is boring.  It’s not bad - it’s only boring.  The result is that I didn’t feel like it was unfunny, I just felt like no one was making an effort.
    The lead is one of the most peculiar characters I’ve seen, since he has a clear arc, but he’s actually less likable at the end.  He starts the movie as a jerk, seducing girls for the fun of it.  He seems to be having a good time.  Then he gets into a relationship where he’s challenged to be himself.  Suddenly, he’s boring.  He doesn’t have a personality any more!  And his expressions and behavior implies that he’s actually unhappy living like this.
    The big event that drives a wedge between the couple involves him complaining to her that they haven’t had sex.  He eventually figures out that he shouldn’t do that, but I didn’t feel like I understood his decision to begin with.  Doesn’t that just send the message that underneath his jerk exterior is… another jerk?
    There’s a subplot about his band looking to get signed.  Some agent is in the audience at two shows.  After the first one, he tells them that he wants to see some more variety in their songs, something more soulful - a love song.  At the second show, they play an angry song.  The agent turns them down.
    Then, at the prom (I guess it’s the prom.  I already forget.) the band plays his new love song in his grand gesture to win the girl back.
    And for some strange reason, the agent is there.

    That was the one time that I laughed during the movie.