by Audrey Roche

I couldn’t even make it through the trailer of this movie the first time it had popped up on Netflix.. There are not many things that are so cringy that I can’t even get through the trailer, but here this is. Not to mention, I signed up to watch the whole 2 hours of it. However, now you don’t have to! 
These are some questions I attempted to answer about this movie:

Is this even a realistic problem? Who even complains about being too tall?

To start off, I am not a mens 13 size nikes. I’m am a self proclaimed short tall person; I don’t even reach 6 feet, but people definitely tried to tell me I’d be good at basketball as a kid. So maybe I can’t really understand the problems the main character, Jodi, faces, but at the same time it’s completely ridiculous. In my opinion the bullying is overdramatized. Jodi gets bullied from the time when she was little to when she is older. The childhood bullying I can understand, kids are just cruel. But once you get into the teenage years there is no way everyone hasn’t gotten bored of it. I’d also like to point out being that tall cannot be as bad as Jodi makes it seem. I’m sure it’s inconvenient and annoying at some times. Even I have issues cramming into plane seats, and have worried about being taller than my significant other. (I got over it) For the most part though, it’s pretty advantageous. That makes most of this movie really frustrating, because Jodi just can’t see it. 

Who came up with this plot?

My best answer to this question is a legitimate 5th grader wrote this plot, and it was pitched as a joke. It’s so full of cliches it is almost funny. It seems like the directors and actors really had fun with it too. I think the moment where the love interest walked into the door with the lights shining and angel music playing I knew this wasn’t exactly supposed to be a serious movie. I think Sabrina Carpenter, who played the main character’s beauty queen older sister, did I really great job with playing around with her character’s stereotype in particular. Her scenes really had a great dramatic flair, that was enjoyable over the top. There’s some really great one-liners hidden in there too! (NOT the ones they used in the trailer)

What are some of the biggest issues with the plot?

I’ve already touched on the fact that it’s full of cliches and stereotypes. In addition, a lot of it is unrealistic and overdone. However some of the biggest issues I have are with how they treated some of the characters. Jodi didn’t deserve Dunkleman, her best friend who pinned after her for all of highschool, after ignoring him for most of their lives. Also, Jodi’s other best friend, Fareeda, is legitimately just along for the ride. She gets no character plot of her own, and is just there to constantly push up Jodi. 

What’s the message of this movie?

I think what they were trying to say is that you should embrace yourself and be confident in who you are. This is a great message, but I definitely think it could be better done. Jodi ignored years of her best friend and parents telling her that she was amazing just the way she was. However only when three (yes, three) guys fall for her, and then have a fight over her does she see her worth. Come on, is this really the message you want to be sending?

Is this movie actually any good?

If you don’t take it seriously, it could be really great for a laugh.