Review: ‘I Love You, Beth Cooper’
by John NolteWhenever one of these teen comedies pop up, it’s always with an open and eager mind I go in search of a gem — something sexy, smart, bawdy, romantic, longing — something that rises above the expected to strike a deeper emotional chord. Because we all went through the phase, the idea of coming of age is a universal one, making some of the genre’s post-John Hughes winners, “Dazed and Confused,” “American Pie,” “The Girl Next Door,” and to some extent, “17 Again,” as enjoyable for those of us looking wistfully back at high school as for those who still attend. Obviously there’s a lot of manure to sift through in search of this particular pony, and “I Love You, Beth Cooper” happens to be one of the manurey-est.
Charmless and seedy only begin to describe the flat, meandering story of Stanford-bound Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust), the nerdy high school valedictorian who uses the opportunity of his graduation speech to say out loud what is best left unspoken, including the film’s title. What comes next is the expected “wild night” where repressed Denis — and his mouthy best friend Rich (Jack T. Carpenter) — head off on a graduation-night romp with the aforementioned Beth Cooper (Hayden Pantierre) and her two cheerleader friends (Lauren Storm as a slutty dim-bulb and Lauren London as someone who registers no personality whatsoever). Chasing them is Beth’s psychotic, coked up Army boyfriend and his psychotic, coked up Army friends. They should’ve been called, “Convenient Plot-Movers I, II, and III.” (more…)
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