A school comedy so predictable the screenwriters should be sent to the principal's office but with a central performance worth skipping last period for.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 2, 2021

It was good acting and good writing.

Full Review | May 27, 2020

Oh dear, am I the Duff?

Full Review | Mar 26, 2020

While director Ari Sandel's adaptation is devoid of any surprises and spells out every thought and action, it does finally deliver a worthy message.

Full Review | Aug 15, 2019

Not clever enough to be genre-defining in its own right, The DUFF nevertheless follows successfully in the footsteps of its teen romcom predecessors, delivering both laughs and a genuinely touching romance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 14, 2019

It's not a terrible movie, just kind of forgettable and average.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Apr 30, 2019

This is Whitman's show, and she's so strong she makes a good film out of what should have been a middling one.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 15, 2019

There's a part of me that thinks I should dislike this film on principle alone, but I'd be lying if I said I did dislike the finished project.

Full Review | Jan 31, 2019

A fairly predictable entry into the teen genre that is elevated thanks to an incredibly charming lead performance from Mae Whitman.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jan 24, 2019

THE DUFF has a visual style that places you in the lexicon of the teen psyche, with self-referential hashtags and slang.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 8, 2018

Both the cruelty of the students and the happiness of the ending felt beyond the realm of possibility to me. If you're going to make a satire, you have to go all the way.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2018

What keeps this movie from simply being a tired rip-off is the incredible performance of Mae Whitman.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Aug 16, 2017

Always fun to see how high school gets techno-updated. The phone-and-social-media insanity portrayed here makes the beepers of 1995's 'Clueless' look like trilobite fossils.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 7, 2016

The DUFF brings something different to the genre.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 21, 2016

An earnest high-school comedy that mostly feels like the dried-out, overheated leftovers of John Hughes.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Feb 23, 2016

As she proved in Arrested Development, Whitman is great -- although without her tremendous comic skill The DUFF would be, well, duff.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2015

[Mae Whitman] helps elevate a predictable story into one many won't mind watching.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2015

It occasionally plays like a mashup of Mean Girls and Easy A, but Whitman's performance gives The DUFF a spiky energy all its own.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2015

There are times during The DUFF where you sense some potential. But by the time the third act delivers its predictable finale, seasoned audiences are left to reminisce about the movies that did it all better.

Full Review | Nov 5, 2015

...it is, in the end, impossible to view The DUFF with anything less than almost total disdain (especially given the above-average nature of its source material).

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 26, 2015