Alex recommends a good teen movie performance by Justin Long in Accepted.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are a couple of teen movies I don\u2019t think ever got a fair shot; they might still be mediocre, but they\u2019re better than I Love You, Beth Cooper. I\u2019m fine with mediocre teen movies being seen by (seemingly) only me and the friends I make watch them with me, but it bothers me a lot more when a good lead performance in a teen movie is wasted.<\/p>\n

Justin Long seems to divide people pretty easily; the fallout of the Mac vs. PC war has had more of an impact on his perception than most people think. As far as a dramatic actor, he\u2019s nothing special (and his performance in Dreamland is truly abysmal), but the guy is a generally funny and naturally charismatic guy. Basically, he\u2019s the perfect lead for a teen movie.<\/p>\n

Accepted is about a group of people who aren\u2019t good enough to get into the colleges they want, so they make one up where everybody is accepted, and blah blah blah hopelessly optimistic bullshit. It\u2019s basically a low-grade version of what Ferris Bueller Goes to College probably would have looked like; I would imagine that it was pitched to the studio as that as well. But Long makes for a pretty charming and funny faux Ferris, and he also gets to continue to use a bit of the physical comedy skills that he was so effective with in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to pretend that Acceptable is a great movie; it\u2019s not. It\u2019s just a funny teen movie, one that features talented people like Long, Jonah Hill, Maria Thayer, and Columbus Short. Also, Lewis Black plays the dean of the fake college Long creates, and Black demolishes every line he has (his discussion with Long\u2019s parents is particularly hilarious). Every time the movie does something overly corny, like proclaiming that we all need to be accepted in our own special way, there\u2019s a funny enough joke shortly after that you never get too bothered by it. And Long is charming enough that his speeches aren\u2019t painful to sit through.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this on a PC, you might hate Justin Long and have no desire to see the movie. Or you\u2019re a person who isn\u2019t absurd, and you recognize that Long is pretty talented. Accepted is probably his best role (that I\u2019ve seen), and even though he\u2019s doing it within a teen movie that is occasionally a little too saccharine for my liking, it\u2019s worth seeing.<\/p>\n