That Awkward Bromance

Hot actors plus cheesy rom-com plot equals a typical Saturday night of a teenage girl.

“That Awkward Moment” fits the GNO movie night criteria perfectly. The premise of this movie is about three friends in their twenty something’s wanting to live it up and have as much sex with as many girls as they can before they must settle down and marry someone. It was definitely a predictable movie but there was great comedic timing throughout. Thirty minutes in I found myself thinking, “Wow, how is this going to stretch out into a two-and-a-half hour movie.” Luckily, the humor throughout kept my focus.

This “bro-com” isn’t something I think an actual bro would want to go see. It’s one of those movies that a ton of young girls go to see because they think that it is insightful on the way boys think about girls. Which would make them think that all guys are douchebags (sometimes true). This movie just highlights the “player” aspect of guys and that they all cheat and don’t care until you stick around long enough for them to start caring.

The movie caught my attention right at the beginning when I heard the crude language (always gets me laughing), but I will say that the storyline didn’t interest me at all. It was long and dragged out. We get it. Girls are a handful. I wanted a surprise element, but unfortunately never got one.

The movie refers back to the “so…” moment of every relationship where you have to establish what it is and Zac Efron’s character says “nothing good ever comes after ‘So.’” It is taking a look at the difference between a “casual hookup” and “serious romance” which takes me back to the point of the story line boring me a bit. It was just like every other movie I’ve been watching for years. The boy doesn’t want to commit. Then he meets a cool girl who he starts to like. He gets afraid. Boy breaks girls heart. Then, miraculously, they end up together in the end. Smiles, butterflies and giggles.

One thing that set That Awkward Moment apart from other movies that are similar to it was the casting. The directors chose a few fresh, up-and-coming faces to play the lead roles. This aspect happened to save the movie in my mind. Bringing in new, young actor Miles Teller.

Teller plays the role of a sassy, man-hoe named Daniel. Teller isn’t a household name, but he’s about to be. He’s known as the popular baseball player in Project X, but Teller has recently had some leading roles. In “Spectacular Now” he played a funny, on-the-verge of becoming an alcoholic teenager and “21 & Over” he played a 20 year old college kid who just wanted to get drunk and party.

The recurring theme with Teller is a blunt sense of humor and lots of booze, exactly like his character Daniel. Even starring alongside such a big name in Hollywood like Efron, Teller killed it. After leaving the movie I told my mom that I think Teller is going to be the next Jonah Hill/ Seth Rogan type actor. The kid is hysterical.

I was surprised that the numerous people I had talked to about it said it looked stupid. I had asked a lot of my friends to go see this movie with me and unfortunately none were interested. My thought is that they didn’t want to go because of Zac Efron. Efron’s name goes hand in hand with the lovely High School Musical franchise. Efron has become a “lame” actor of our generation due to all of his Disney appearances. I got the heebies having to watch Troy Bolton have sex in this movie.

This movie, although extremely predictable, does a good job of knowing its place in the movie world. The directors didn’t try to do anything extremely remarkable with the plot. Instead, they take a different angle and show the three small stories of these three young guys’ love lives. I laughed a little, thought “awwww” at particular moments and laughed a little more. My mom described it as “silly”, her way of saying she didn’t like all the raunchy terms in it. It definitely won’t leave a mark. Heck, I’ve kind of already forgotten about most of it.

And boys, I wouldn’t suggest it for a date night movie with your girl, she might bring up the “so..” and that’d leave you feeling awkward.