Prom Dates

Prom Dates is a movie that seemingly everyone already had the same opinion about. And I share that opinion. There’s very little point reading this review beyond this opening paragraph. Prom Dates is like if Booksmart was designed by a Disney+ committee. That’s all you need to know, really.

Jess and Hannah are longtime best friends who made a pact about attending prom together, but also with dates. Jess especially placed a lot of value on having a perfect prom experience. Unfortunately, Jess catches her popular boyfriend cheating on her the day before prom. Meanwhile, Hannah has an intense, clingy boyfriend who wants to be with her always and forever. But Hannah can no longer deny the knowledge that she’s a lesbian. In a madcap night, Jess and Hannah go on a series of misadventures to find respective prom dates to ensure their prom is as perfect as they always imagined it.

It’s the designed by a committee aspect that really lets Prom Dates down. It’s not like this film is completely devoid of funny moments. But story beats and characters all feel recycled and uncreative. This very much feels like a film designed or at least structured by corporate executives trying to capture something that’s already been popular rather than the product of one creative and funny individual with original thoughts.

It shows progress that Hannah is a lead character rather than supporting. However, she still feels like a comically unattractive and exaggerated best friend. While she gets more successful comedy moments, that means moments of embarrassment and gross-out humour fall far more on her, the gay and fat lead character. While I admire teen girls being portrayed as genuine comic forces and not merely attractive, I wish the comedy was a bit more evenly doled out. There’s two scenes of Hannah suddenly vomiting. Surely for the sake of equality Jess should have had one of those?

Hannah’s story of coming out and gay acceptance obviously shows continuous social progress on the subject of queer youth. But again, this is Disney+ designed by a committee fare so it’s not exactly fresh or groundbreaking. I found the fact that in the third act, Hannah is depicted as being a flawed, mean person because she didn’t come out to her clingy boyfriend and owes him an apology to be troublesome. It’s understandable that his feelings were hurt. But as a film, it seems more willing to take the side and feelings of the non-queer secondary character into account than its actual queer protagonist.

Prom Dates should only be recommended to two polar groups of people. If you’re a die-hard fan of raunchy teen comedies or queer teen comedies, then you’ll probably enjoy it based on how well it fits into those subgenres. And it’s not the worst one by any means. The other group who might enjoy it are people who haven’t seen any of the stronger, more original films within those subgenres; the films that Prom Dates is likely specifically trying to evoke. This is probably a much better film if you haven’t seen Booksmart or Blockers. But as someone who has, Prom Dates just feels like Booksmart’s reheated nachos.

Overall rating: 5.5/10

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