‘The To Do List’: Calling the class of 1993!

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Do you remember Trapper Keepers, skorts, Home Improvement, Bill Cosby sweaters, or the unstableness of a waterbed? Gas was $1.16 a gallon (no fuel perks) and Bill Clinton was recently elected as the 42nd President of the United States.

In 1993, I was 5 years old. But I got a taste of high school in the early 1990s after watching CBS Films The To Do List starring Aubrey Plaza, Johnny Simmons, Bill Hader, and Scott Porter.  Brandy Clark (Plaza) recently graduates from high school and realizes that she’s an inexperienced virgin. After pressure from her promiscuous friends and well-endowed older sister,

 

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This photo shows Aubrey Plaza from the cast of “The To Do List” at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP)T

Brandy creates a to do list of sex acts she wants to commit before she goes to college in the Fall.  With the entire summer at her disposal, Brandy learns a lot about herself as a lifeguard at a local swimming pool.  

Like most teenagers, Brandy is curious about sex and her innocence only exacerbates her interest.   Her big sister, Amber (Rachel Bilson) gives her useless tips on how to “score,” while her best friends, Fiona (Alia Shawkat) and Wendy (Sarah Steele) complicate their friendships by fighting over guys.  

This is the first I’ve heard of Aubrey Plaza but she was absolutely brilliant.  She’s pretty much the Stacey Dash of the millennium.  Like the Clueless superstar, Aubrey Plaza is 29 years old and easily plays the role of a 17-year-old.  Plaza is frail yet cute and spunky and she completely dazzles the big screen as sexually awkward Brandy Clark.

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This film publicity image released by CBS Films shows Rachel Bilson as Amber Klark in a scene from “The To Do List.” (AP Photo/CBS Films, Bonnie Osborne)

It was easy to reminiscence because the music in the To Do List reminds you exactly where you were in 1993.  I know you’re thinking I was riding my big wheel and watching Mister Rogers but I remember songs like O.P.P by Naughty by Nature and MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This. The movie is also filled with sex songs that coincide with the movie’s raunchiness like 2 Live Crew’s Me So Horny, Rump Shaker by Wreckx-N-Effect, and Let’s Talk About Sex by Salt-n-Pepa. It’s hard not to believe that an average high schooler in 1993 wasn’t thinking about sex with all of the sexual music references.

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This photo shows from left, director/writer Maggie Carey, with cast members Clark Gregg, Aubrey Plaza, Scott Porter and Connie Britton from the film “The To Do List” at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP)

 

4 Stars:  The To Do List, in theatres July 26th, is refreshing yet proactive.  Definitely not appropriate for anyone under 18 but an accurate account of how teenagers feel about sex. It’s juicy with new comedy and overall, a moviemaking delight.

 

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