Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

Dir: Sara Sugarman. US. 2004

Fantasy Lindsay (image: Fonzie's cousin Flickr CC)

Teenage kicks

Coming hot on the heels of Freaky Friday, and shortly before the smash hit Mean Girls, this drab teen comedy suffers by comparison with its classier cousins.

In COATDQ Lindsay Lohan is Mary – a New York gal by birth and temperament – whose bohemian mother relocates them to a New Jersey suburb much to Mary’s annoyance.

Re-creating herself as ‘Lola’, Mary proceeds to wreak havoc at her new school with her outlandish clothes, tall tales (she invents a dead, but glamorous, father) and penchant for melodrama. The paper-thin plot stretches no further than an unlikely new BFF in Ella (Allison Pill) who shares Lola’s love for rock band ‘Sidarthur’, a spat with the in-clique (headed by Ms Megan Fox)…and an obligatory ‘boy-next-door-with-an-undeclared-crush’ storyline which is shoehorned in.

A flat script, and even flatter supporting performances, mean Lindsay Lohan has to work hard (if slightly frantically) to hold together some semblance of comedy. Without the smarts, or the slapstick humour, of her other breakthrough hits there simply isn’t enough here to keep any but the most devoted ‘la Lohan’ fan interested.

Rated: 2/5
IMDb entry