Released on Hulu (and Disney+) with little to no fanfare, Kim O. Nguyen’s Prom Dates has an immediate aura of familiarity to it. Notably plucking its core character arcs from Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart (and raunchy humor from Emma Seligman’s Bottoms, among others), it retreads a conventional story of two best friends, Jess (Antonia Gentry) and Hannah (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Julia Lester), who have made a pact that their senior prom will be the greatest night of their lives. 

The two have dates for prom until Jess’ boyfriend, Luca (Jordan Buhat, with an incredible turn as the biggest douche of our time), cheats on her and gets caught. Meanwhile, Hannah desperately wants to come out as gay, but her friend Greg (Kenny Ridwan) promposes to her in front of the entire school, putting her in a precarious situation. Hannah has the hots for Angie (Terry Hu) but can’t muster up a casual conversation with her without choking on her gum and farting (one of the film’s least funny sequences), while Greg has rewired his entire life on being devoted to her.

This makes for some relatively funny banter, with Ridwan stealing the show during a key scene where he attempts to look for Hannah but meets her brother, Jacob (JT Neal), so dehydrated from crying that he chugs a large water bottle in one go. This type of physical comedy is classic but is always effective, especially when the actors know when to be ultra-expressive (and when to ultimately dial it down) when the scene warrants it. In that regard, Ridwan is the best part of the movie, always appearing in the most uncomfortable situations and stealing the spotlight away from Gentry and Lester, who are equally as good.

Truth be told,the movie wouldn’t have worked if the chemistry between the two leads wasn’t solid. Thankfully, it’s far more than that, with Gentry and Lester portraying their friendship in an achingly sincere, relatable light that makes each uncomfortable situation far more entertaining than they should (I mean, sneezing blood on a stripteaser isn’t funny, but the way in which it’s executed is so surprising that it may bring chuckles out of you).

Gentry’s performance is far more grounded than Lester’s, but their different traits work quite well when paired together. Even if their personalities couldn’t be more different, they still find a way to connect with each other, leading to often absurd situations, which always end with the two finding ways to reconnect as they attempt (but miserably fail) to find new prom dates.

It’s a shame that the bulk of the film re-treads character arcs and a storyline we’ve all seen before, ultimately making the viewing experience a tad uneven. That’s not saying there aren’t any strong moments; there are plenty of hilarious situations that deftly use physical humor in a way that feels fresh and original (the frat boy concussion scene is a perfect example of subverting initial expectations the scene immediately sets up), but there are also plenty of situations that fall flat on their face.

One of them sees Hannah throw up a grand total of four times on a fountain as a couple celebrates their two-year wedding anniversary (with She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s Patty Guggenheim appearing in a small role). The confrontation between the couple is funny, but what comes before isn’t, and it continues for a long time before the scene morphs into something quasi-interesting.

The movie then jumps to its ending, which, in all honesty, has highs and lows. The biggest high involves Lester singing a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s L.O.V.E. while the lows occur as Nguyen and writer D.J. Mausner go for some of the biggest and most uneventful prom movie clichés in the book, attempting to nicely tie everything together in a bow instead of going beyond what the initial character arcs introduced. Still, Prom Dates is a relatively inoffensive movie that cements both Gentry and Lester as terrific up-and-coming talents, and acts as a reminder that, if you haven’t seen both Ginny & Georgia and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, you should definitely get on that train right now.

Prom Dates is now available to stream on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ internationally.

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Oh FFS, this again?! *spoilers will occur in this segment*

Yes, I have to point out a few of my main issues, so you will know to steer clear of Founding Fathers if you have the same pet peeves. That’s why the below will include spoilers, so beware of those in the below.

I did find myself almost yelling at the screen, which – to the film’s credit – means it’s hitting some spots. Not anything good, unfortunately, as I was going “Oh, for f***’s sake, this again?!” at the screen.

Not only is the first victim of the slasher a woman. And not only is she a lesbian (or queer) woman. She also just kissed her girlfriend, professed her love for her girlfriend, and asked her to stay. That is the stereotypical brutal trope textbook moment for when a lesbian (or queer woman) will get killed.

From The 100 to The Purge series and The Walking Dead, it happens constantly. I do not need this as a mystery element in my horror comedy slasher as well.

However, with Founder’s Day, it gets a bit worse. I realized we never actually saw the queer woman die. And another rule of horror is that someone is never truly dead unless you see them die. So, instead of this being another “Bury your gays” moment, it was the other terrible trope: The psychopath lesbian predator!

I am grossly oversimplifying, but right now LGBTQ series are (once again) getting canceled by the dozen, so I don’t need this crap in my horror comedies as well. You could just as easily have chosen any white man. One obvious character comes to mind, which you’ll understand if you watch the movie.

But no, it just had to be the queer female. Which means I definitely had to get miffed (to put it very mildly) about it.

“It’s all about cotton padded jackets.”

Director Nao Hing and Hong Kong mega-star Andy Lau Tak-wah reunite after 18 years (when Lau produced Hing’s “Crazy Stone”) to bring to life a rather funny Hong Kong (and not only) film industry satire, with “The Movie Emperor”. Inappropriately labelled as a Chinese New Year movie and following its triumphant premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September and the Pingyao International Film Festival in October 2023, the film’s theatrical release during Chinese New Year 2024 proved unexpectedly disappointing, grossing just 83 million yuan, probably obscured by more classical and joke-filled comedies, as expected in those festivities.

Dany Lau (Andy Lau) is a veteran megastar with a large fan base, who has been around long enough to start thinking he needs and/or deserves a lifetime achievement award, something like an Oscar. Shortlisted for the Best Actor prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards, he loses it to a rival. Not just a rival, but none other than Jackie Chan, and – to add insult to injury – he is asked to collect the award on behalf of the winner who hasn’t even showed up at the ceremony. Suave and charming as usual, Dany faces the defeat with a façade of sense of humour, but deep down he is furious. Analysing the careers of his more awarded rivals, Dany gets to the conclusions that his mistake is not having done (like Jackie Chan did) more “serious work”, the sort of indie, arty movies that Western festival juries adore.

When the opportunity arises, he takes the leading role of a peasant (a pig farmer, of course!) in a Chinese art-house production and devotes himself to the success of the production, bringing in some sponsors and new-money investors who are not interested in the artistic value of the project but so arrogant to demand to re-write some scenes. Moreover, Dany’s fervour makes him embrace a sort of Stanislavski’s system – as the art of experiencing while training for the part – and he diligently scouts for poor people to observe, real pig farmers to imitate and modest (in his opinion) accommodations to live in. Things starts to backfire when, after adopting a pig as a pet, he also insists on doing his own stunts on a real horse (like Jackie Chan would do), unleashing a shitstorm of comments from the netizens.

The opening scene, with workers preparing kilometers of red carpet, setting up the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony, and soon after complemented by the same workers taking the whole circus down, is a perfect way to summarize “The Movie Emperor”’s core remark about the fleeting nature of fame and success. Nao Hing pokes fun at the star system and his acute observations hit hard and comment several points. First of all, the aforementioned transience of fame underscores how fragile the professional achievements of a public figure can be in the public eye. A consummate showman with years of experience could still lose everything for a silly faux pas. This also goes hand in hand with a critique of the cancel culture and the generational inability of Dany to deal with it.

Another emerging topic is the airtight bubble in which celebrities are confined and defined by the fun base’s gaze. Dany is paranoid of being filmed and he fears every little red light indicating a camera, something that will generate many cringe-inducing situations; one above all, his clumsy attempt to court a much younger promo director (Rima Zeidan). Not least, a rather funny recurrent point of the film is the mocking of the stereotypical art movie and the great lengths to go to get festival recognition and validation. Some of the best gags of the film involve Dany trying to learn how and where poor people live, culminating with a villager guide apologising: “Oh, you mean poor people? Sorry, we haven’t been poor in years.”

Andy Lau is the beating heart of the movie, obviously, and he plays Dany – a sort of rather dystopian alter ego of himself – with a dedication and zeal that only Dany could match. It is very funny watching such a legend making fun of himself, his entourage, and the industry. However, what truly elevates the film to a higher level is the way it is elegantly filmed and cleverly directed. The comedic time, Nao Hing’s method of lingering on certain static expressions for a long time, the frequent surreal wide-frame camera angles, the crisp photography from Wang Boxue; all blends to a whole that indeed surpasses the sum of its parts. Good performances by actors like Kelly Lim and Pal Sinn, many cameos of HK celebrities like Tony Leung Ka-fai, Miriam Yeung and Wong Jing, and, finally, Nao Hing playing the director of the arthouse movie in the movie, contribute to the final entertaining result.

The Chinese title of “The Movie Emperor” translates “Mr. Red Carpet” which is a rather apt title for this clever meta-movie and sleek satire of the film industry and the shifting figure of the movie star in the age of social media.