{"id":36818,"date":"2013-07-26T08:28:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T15:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/?p=36818"},"modified":"2013-07-26T11:30:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T18:30:25","slug":"rethink-reviews-the-to-do-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/2013\/07\/26\/rethink-reviews-the-to-do-list\/","title":{"rendered":"ReThink Reviews: The To Do List"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"inline-playlist playlist\" title=\"\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/download\/THETODOLIST12\/THE%20TO%20DO%20LIST_1-2.mp3\">Listen to this segment <\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><a href =\"http:\/\/www.rethinkreviews.net\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=right width=55% src=\"\/home\/graphics\/rethink_reviews_small.jpg\" alt=\"Rethink Reviews\" \/><\/a><strong>Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. <\/strong>  <\/p>\n<p><em>Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. <\/em>  <\/p>\n<p> Read his reviews online at <a href=\"http:\/\/ReThinkReviews.net\">ReThinkReviews.net<\/a>. Watch his videos at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim\">www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim<\/a>, and follow him on Twitter at <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ReThinkReviews\">twitter.com\/ReThinkReviews<\/a>. ReThink Reviews&#8217; theme song is by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/restaurantmusic\">Restavrant<\/a>.    <\/p>\n<p><strong>THE TO DO LIST<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The teen sex comedy is usually a male-dominated genre, focusing on the misadventures of horny boys trying desperately to lose their virginity or sleep with that perfect girl, thus completing their transition to manhood. It\u2019s a genre that had its heyday in the 80s with films like \u2018Porky\u2019s\u2019, though it made a comeback in 1999 with the hit \u2018American Pie\u2019, reminding studios that teen sex comedies are both cheap to make with the potential for wild profitability. \u2018The To Do List\u2019, written and directed by Maggie Carey, fits the genre\u2019s formula, following a high school graduate trying to complete a checklist of sexual accomplishments the summer before starting college. But by making that teenager a geeky girl and infusing the film with a modern comedic sensibility born from the exploding sketch and improv scenes, \u2018The To Do List\u2019 provides a fresh take on the teen sex comedy and is, in my mind, the summer\u2019s best comedy.<\/p>\n<p>Set in Boise, Idaho in 1993, \u2018The To Do List\u2019 stars Aubrey Plaza as Brandy Klark, the uptight valedictorian of her high school who publishes her own feminist magazine and idolizes Hillary Clinton. But as her overachieving high school career comes to an end, Brandy\u2019s best friends (played by Alia Shawkat and Sarah Steele) point out that she\u2019s ignored a core subject: sex.<\/p>\n<p>After Brandy\u2019s dimmer but more sexually experienced older sister (played by Rachel Bilson) tells Brandy that sex will definitely be on her freshman curriculum, Brandy, ever the diligent student, decides to give herself a crash course in human sexuality, creating a comprehensive to do list of sexual activities she barely understands but vows to complete with whoever will comply before freshman orientation, hopefully ending by bedding the local guitar-playing hunk, Rusty Waters (played by Scott Porter).<\/p>\n<p>Brandy works with Rusty at the local swimming pool, alongside their slacker boss Willy (played by Bill Hader), a fellow graduate named Derrick (played by Donald Glover), and Brandy\u2019s puppy-faced study buddy Cameron (played by Johnny Simmons) who\u2019s trying to win her heart. Clark Gregg is Brandy\u2019s strict, Rush Limbaugh-loving dad, while Connie Britton plays her mom, a nurse who understands the value of responsible sex education. Andy Samberg plays a rocker riding the grunge wave and Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Cameron\u2019s buddy, Duffy.<\/p>\n<p>One of the ways \u2018The To Do List\u2019 and its hero diverges wonderfully from the ilk of its genre is that Brandy\u2019s desire for sexual experience isn\u2019t driven by raging hormones, frustration, or even pleasure. Instead, Brandy\u2019s interest in sex is purely academic. It\u2019s a required subject she somehow forgot to take, and failing to complete her list means potentially jeopardizing her spot at the top of her class, an unacceptable notion for a compulsive overachiever who will settle for nothing less than becoming the world\u2019s most powerful woman.   <\/p>\n<p>Where the protagonist\u2019s dilemma in most teen sex comedies is not getting enough sex, Brandy\u2019s problem in \u2018The To Do List\u2019 quickly becomes getting too much of it while remaining oblivious to the varying levels of emotion people assign to physical intimacy. Whether it\u2019s someone like Cameron who equates sex with love or Rusty who can\u2019t connect them, Brandy simply doesn\u2019t care. The adults in her life can\u2019t seem to provide much guidance \u2014 Brandy\u2019s father\u2019s conservative beliefs means the entire topic of sex is verboten, preferring to keep his head in the sand about even his wife\u2019s sexual history, while she seems more focused on sex\u2019s clinical realities. Willy\u2019s lack of responsibility makes him somewhat of a child himself, leaving him baffled by his instincts to protect Brandy from something he isn\u2019t even against. In a better world, Hader would receive a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his clever and consistently hilarious performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsistently hilarious\u201d is also a great way to describe \u2018The To Do List\u2019, which provides more delight with its shoestring $1.5 million budget than many studio tentpoles did with soaring nine-digit price tags, while masterfully and honestly walking the line of whether sex should mean everything or nothing. It\u2019s a wonderfully sweet film that\u2019s explicit in its language but tame with its visuals, that ultimately isn\u2019t about transitioning to adulthood, but about teenagers embracing the sexual follies of youth and the stories they\u2019ll one day tell.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The To Do List\u2019 is rated R and opens today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rethink-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36841,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36818\/revisions\/36841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}