[WARNING: THE FILM IS RATED R AND MY REVIEW CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT.]
There’s a massive disconnect between the film That Awkward Moment thinks it is and the film it actually is.
It seems to think it’s a hip, freewheeling, edgy bromantic comedy—equal parts Swingers and a Y-chromosome take on HBO’s Girls. When, for the most part, it’s clichéd, regressive, and, at times, down right offensive.
Early
in the film, Zac Efron’s Jason explains that when a girl says the word
“so” (as in: “so where is this going?” or “so what are we to each
other?”) it’s time to cut and run. (Before they decided to appropriate
that slightly-dated Internet-speak of the title, some earlier version of
this film was almost undoubtedly called “So…”).
He and
his best friends Daniel (Miles Teller) and Mikey (Michael B. Jordan)
make a pact to fill up their “rosters” with women you can have regular
sex with without any expectation of commitment. Then, you guessed it,
Jason meets a girl he really likes, Ellie (the gloriously named Imogene
Poots), but resists his feelings, because it’s against his own bro code.
Meanwhile,
Daniel has a female best friend who acts as a kind of wingman for him
at the bar, ushering girls his way, complimenting their shoes, making
introductions until—who could have possibly seen this coming?—Daniel
falls for her, too. (That whole scenario is beyond stupid: Teller is a
somewhat handsome kid who has risen to fame thanks to his abundance of
loopy charm. His female best friend, played by Mackenzie Davis, is a
model-esque beauty—in real life she’d be out of his league, not his
Plain Jane pal helping him hook up with other girls.).
Jordan’s
Mikey is the most human of the bunch. He plays a doctor, still pining
away for his ex-wife. (He has to keep the fact that he has feelings away
from his buddies—they wouldn’t understand.)
That Awkward Moment
is the kind of film where most of the women are interchangeable sex
objects—except for the two “cool girls” our heroes fall in love with.
And
then there’s this: Are men actually as, um, phallus-centric as this
film would have us believe? Because the film is positively obsessed with
penises. There’s a long extended bit when Mikey accidentally
masturbates with tanning lotion—triggering a “made for the gag reel”
series of clearly improvised and mostly unfunny quips from his pals
(“you look like a traffic cone” “you look like a sad giraffe” etc.).
Later, Jason goes to a “dress up” party, which he misinterprets as a
costume party, decked out in a hanging dildo. In another scene, Daniel
goes to hug Mikey while wearing no pants and Mikey basically tells him
to back that thing up.
When the gang aren’t talking about their
“junk” and demeaning—or idealizing—women, they’re making fart jokes.
Those are some of the more sophisticated moments.
The film has its
charms—mostly because the leads are so effortlessly appealing. But
Efron, in particular, needs to start making smarter choices. That Awkward Moment
feels a bit like spending 90 minutes with three frat boys who are
constantly high fiving and laughing at each other’s jokes. They’re not
nearly as hilarious as they think they are.