A review by Azzam Abdur-Rahman
College is an odd time when portrayed in media. It very rarely focuses on the personal growth, the concepts of higher education or anything else of that note. It is almost always about partying or getting laid or something else of that note. Short of strange films like 21 (which is a racist trash movie) or The Social Network (which deserves a sequel called The Social Deconstruction about how Facebook has destroyed the social constructions of many nations including our own) but beyond those it is a hellscape of stories that never talk about how awful college is. I say this as someone with a Bachelor's degree who feels like a wage slave no matter where he goes. That’s why Accepted is a movie that I hope great reverence for. It's a movie that has partying and excitement but it is also about how people when given the chance will do everything in their power to be better people.
Accepted is an odd movie from a production standpoint as it is a directorial debut. It feels like a journeyman by the numbers comedy done but someone who has knocked 30 of these movies out at first. Steve Pink got his career started as an actor but shifted to producing with friend John Cusak in the 90’s helping bring the criminally underrated Grosse Pointe Blank to life. Accepted feels like the work of its only named producer Tom Shadyac. Tom famously directed Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor or Bruce Almighty and only produced this and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which is a hellish abomination that I think god every day has been struck from history as a trash film. Accepted feels more like Shadyac picture but works to the films credit as its serious points are sugar coated in fun from its cast! Justin Long is a pinch hitter in the acting game. Guy can improve any film he is in with little to no effort. He is charming, he is fun and he has a smile that can disarm a nation. It is actually a shame that he has never really gotten a great starring role as he can do it all. In Accepted all of his skills are at work. He can be inspiring. He can be intelligent and he can be the perfect amount of rude to sell those moments. Jonah Hill is in the film giving his best exasperated young man trying his best but to me the person who this movie shows how amazing they can be and I think Hollywood should have cast 90 times over is Maria Thayer. She is often given thankless one note roles and her skills as an actor always elevate what could easily be seen as a waste of time.
This film is about a high school kid who is a bit of a grifter often taking the route that involves less direct work and more loopholes legal or not. His father is very traditional expecting him to go to college, get a career and better himself. After not getting into college, he fakes his own and what happens next is hilarity… kind of. The weakest part of the film is the comedy which is by the numbers mid-2000’s PG-13 rated comedy bits. If you cant imagine what I am talking about its montages and pop punk while silly boys do dumb stuff and cute girls to cute stuff. Where the movie finds itself is its harsh critical view of higher education. The school invented on accident by Long’s character focuses on self discovery and teaching yourself. Before I go any further I should let it been known for the last 6 years I have worked in and around education all be it at an elementary level but my knowledge on learning styles, socio-emotional skill building and so on are much higher than your average film fan. This concept is similar to a concept that many pre-schools use which is the Montessori Method of Education. This is built around discovery and argues against hyper structured learning environments.
Accepted wonders and posits in a mid-budget studio comedy that those systems do no work and especially do not work when you are discovering your next steps in life. That learning is a process of creativity, personal discovery and trial and error. That formal higher education forces you down a specific path without any real guidance or time to figure out what is next. It is mildy insane that any movie would do this let alone a studio comedy whose biggest stars were Long, Blake Lively, and Lewis Black. But it is what makes this film worth talking about and discussing on a deep level.
Accepted is one of the last of its kind. It was a mid-budgeted comedy with a high brow concept that could be a solid player to make a small budget but make most of its money on TV and DVD sales. Accepted did neither and I believe it was moderately ahead of its time. Steve Pink has continued to make odd movies that have a popcorn flare but none feel as aggressively strange as this so if you have the time to watch it again and see if as an angry twenty something looking out on the failures of society you would have benefited from personal growth and personal learning!
Accepted is an odd movie from a production standpoint as it is a directorial debut. It feels like a journeyman by the numbers comedy done but someone who has knocked 30 of these movies out at first. Steve Pink got his career started as an actor but shifted to producing with friend John Cusak in the 90’s helping bring the criminally underrated Grosse Pointe Blank to life. Accepted feels like the work of its only named producer Tom Shadyac. Tom famously directed Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor or Bruce Almighty and only produced this and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which is a hellish abomination that I think god every day has been struck from history as a trash film. Accepted feels more like Shadyac picture but works to the films credit as its serious points are sugar coated in fun from its cast! Justin Long is a pinch hitter in the acting game. Guy can improve any film he is in with little to no effort. He is charming, he is fun and he has a smile that can disarm a nation. It is actually a shame that he has never really gotten a great starring role as he can do it all. In Accepted all of his skills are at work. He can be inspiring. He can be intelligent and he can be the perfect amount of rude to sell those moments. Jonah Hill is in the film giving his best exasperated young man trying his best but to me the person who this movie shows how amazing they can be and I think Hollywood should have cast 90 times over is Maria Thayer. She is often given thankless one note roles and her skills as an actor always elevate what could easily be seen as a waste of time.
This film is about a high school kid who is a bit of a grifter often taking the route that involves less direct work and more loopholes legal or not. His father is very traditional expecting him to go to college, get a career and better himself. After not getting into college, he fakes his own and what happens next is hilarity… kind of. The weakest part of the film is the comedy which is by the numbers mid-2000’s PG-13 rated comedy bits. If you cant imagine what I am talking about its montages and pop punk while silly boys do dumb stuff and cute girls to cute stuff. Where the movie finds itself is its harsh critical view of higher education. The school invented on accident by Long’s character focuses on self discovery and teaching yourself. Before I go any further I should let it been known for the last 6 years I have worked in and around education all be it at an elementary level but my knowledge on learning styles, socio-emotional skill building and so on are much higher than your average film fan. This concept is similar to a concept that many pre-schools use which is the Montessori Method of Education. This is built around discovery and argues against hyper structured learning environments.
Accepted wonders and posits in a mid-budget studio comedy that those systems do no work and especially do not work when you are discovering your next steps in life. That learning is a process of creativity, personal discovery and trial and error. That formal higher education forces you down a specific path without any real guidance or time to figure out what is next. It is mildy insane that any movie would do this let alone a studio comedy whose biggest stars were Long, Blake Lively, and Lewis Black. But it is what makes this film worth talking about and discussing on a deep level.
Accepted is one of the last of its kind. It was a mid-budgeted comedy with a high brow concept that could be a solid player to make a small budget but make most of its money on TV and DVD sales. Accepted did neither and I believe it was moderately ahead of its time. Steve Pink has continued to make odd movies that have a popcorn flare but none feel as aggressively strange as this so if you have the time to watch it again and see if as an angry twenty something looking out on the failures of society you would have benefited from personal growth and personal learning!
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