Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
As if it weren’t bad enough to actually hear seemingly normal-looking people use idiotic Internet slang like “LOL” to each other in public to other ostensibly ordinary individuals — all of whom appear more than capable of exhibiting signs of genuine physical laugher quite well on their own — we now have filmmakers embracing these peculiar forms of juvenile jargon. And, should a movie entitled LOL not make you want to vomit just a little bit, how ’bout a movie entitled LOL starring Miley Cyrus? As those fools doomed to forget the power of language would say: “FML.”
Well, here it is, kids: the worst Miley Cyrus film since the last one. French filmmaker Lisa Azuelos directs and co-writes an Americanized version of her own 2008 flick, LOL (Laughing Out Loud), wherein we bear witness to the terrible trials and tribulations of a bratty, spoiled, teenage girl name Lola (Cyrus, in yet another riveting performance), whom everyone likes to call (ugh) Lol. We also get to enjoy the horrific sights and sounds of a similar, uninteresting plight piloted by Lola’s own mother, Anne (Demi Moore). Not surprisingly enough, Miley’s own (real-life) mum co-produced this feature.
Essentially, LOL is all about a daughter and mother duo who argue a lot, fight with their respective friends and lovers, all the while learning a valuable life lesson along the way: somebody, somewhere will always be willing to put up some money to make your movie — no matter how truly awful and redundant it is. The $11-million feature was filmed in 2010, received an extremely limited release to 105 theaters in 2012 without any sort of promotion whatsoever, and still somehow managed to rake in nearly $9-million back. Now, go ahead and combine those two factoids and see if you can still LOL.
Lionsgate brings us this coming-of-age retread to the retarded social network-obsessed world we all have to blame in a 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio (who shoots a movie like this in scope?) with an English 5.1 Dolby Digital EX audio track and several dreary special features. First up is an audio commentary with director Azuelos and actresses Ashley Hinshaw and Lina Esco (not even supporting grown-up stars Thomas Jane or Nora Dunn felt like participating, I guess), followed by two god-awful making-of featurettes with the cast (expect pain), and a short tribute to the film’s (still-living) writer/director.
