The DUFF review: A sharp, internet-savvy high school comedy

Director: Ari Sandel; Screenwriter: Josh A Cagan; Starring: Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Allison Janney, Running time: 101 mins; Certificate: 12A

"It was just me, in a dress," Mae Whitman's teenage tomboy Bianca notes in voiceover, as she trades in her sloppy plaid shirts and baggy jeans for a cute LBD. We've seen this moment before, the She's All That transformation where the so-called awkward girl turns miraculously into a hottie, and this knowing aside is one of many small-but-truthful twists that elevate The DUFF from the nightmare it could have been.

An internet-savvy rom-com adapted from the novel by teen wunderkind author Kody Keplinger, The DUFF sounds horrifying in concept. A high schooler played by the appealing, petite Whitman is horrified to learn that she is "the DUFF" (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) to her two effortlessly gorgeous BFFs, and sets out to overhaul her image in order to win over her crush Toby (Nick Eversman). Why not just call this Body Dysmorphic Disorder: The Movie and be done with it?

But Bianca's response to being dubbed the DUFF – by thoughtless yet well-intentioned jock Wesley (Robbie Amell) – is a lot more spirited and smart than it appears. Though Wesley initially takes her on as an Eliza Doolittle-style project, Bianca doesn't change herself in any significant way besides getting a bra that actually fits, and learning that rejection won't kill her.

Whitman grows into the role after initially playing Bianca as too aggressively awkward, and she's never more charming than with Allison Janney, a reliable standout as the newly divorced mom armed with a surplus of quippy self-help slogans ("I combined my ex with my depression and I got expression!")

Ari Sandel's zippy, youthful direction highlights the unusually on-point depiction of online culture in Josh A Cagan's screenplay, which has Bianca first comprehend the horror of her DUFF situation via Urban Dictionary, and realise she is socially invisible because she's never tagged in Facebook photos.

Cyberbullying is only just beginning to get the representation it needs on screen, and there's some real bite here as a humiliating video of Bianca spreads like wildfire – "It's like a prison yard out there!" Romany Malco's headteacher exclaims in bemused horror.

If the film weren't so sharp, and the chemistry between Whitman and Amell not so winning, the way it undermines its central concept would be more bothersome. The DUFF label is rendered pretty much instantly irrelevant by the fact that a) nobody but Wesley seems to know what it means, not even the school's sadistic ice queen Madison (Bella Thorne), and b) it's not meant literally.

The message we muddle our way towards is that everybody is somebody's DUFF, regardless of how attractive they are, which is an even-handed but not entirely satisfying endpoint. But the character arc works spectacularly well independent of this MacGuffin – Bianca isn't transformed into the prom queen, nor does she suddenly have guys falling at her feet, but she accepts who she is and works it.

Far from the body-shaming nightmare it could have been, The DUFF is the first laugh-out-loud high school comedy since Easy A while also being genuinely the kind of story young girls need to be told more often.

Emma Dibdin

Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.