You know how you open an app and aimlessly scroll for something that will catch your eye? That’s what I did “a few nights ago. I landed on “Prom Pact.” What caught me was the thumbnail. It was in the style of “The Breakfast Club,” and my mom is a solid 80’s baby and LOVED the rat pack movies, so I had to dig in.
“Prom Pact” starts as the story of Mandy Yang, played by Peyton Elizabeth Lee who you may remember from “Andi Mack” (I don’t but that’s because I’m old), wanting, desperately, to get into Harvard. It’s her senior year and that’s all she’s been pestering her best friends about….the NEED to get into Harvard. Now, her bestest friend, Ben Plunket played by Milo Manheim who you should remember from “School Spirts,” although tired of hearing you complain about the idea of not getting into her dream school, is with her all the way. It gets interesting from there…..well, it is a bit cliche but I ignored it because the movie was cute.
Graham Lansing, played by Blake Draper, who is Australian, is the star basketball player and also happens to be the younger son of their state’s senator who went to Harvard! So, boom, Mandy decides that she’ll tutor the most popular guy in school in order to get close enough to his dad to tell his dad how much she’d love to go to Harvard. Then, boom, instant Harvard plug! What could go wrong with this plan? I didn’t think much because Mandy is about her business in this film. The goal is Harvard. Her friends know it. Her guidance counselor knows it. The entire school might know it at this point, so I was proud that the movie didn’t automatically make Mandy throw herself off the course. Honestly, she never forgot the mission and that’s what ended up getting her in trouble. Nice spin, movie.
Remember when I said it was their senior year? Well, Ben thinks that they’ve missed out on typical high school/teenage life. He and Mandy have had a routine for years and it’s worked for them up until Ben wanted more. Mandy suggests that they got to prom together as friends so Ben can experience this “high school” life he keeps complaining about. I thought, “Nothing can go wrong with this.” I was wrong again. Ben has a HUGE crush on the most popular girl in school, who is Black (it’s not a normal thing for me to see in teen movies so I felt the need to point it out), LaToya Reynolds. Why these kids have to want the most popular person in school, I have no idea.
Honestly, this was a really cute movie that I don’t have a lot of complains about. Her parents were random, though. It seems like they were stuck in there for comedic relief but it wasn’t needed. Yes, they were funny (her parents were played by Davis S. Jung and Wendi McLendon-Covey who are funny people), but did we need them? No, no we did not. Here’s what I loved about the movie: it never lied to me. Some movies lean into a storyline I’m not supposed to follow or believe in too heavily, and then snatch it away from me to satisfy the ending. I, as a viewer, do not like that. What this movie did was great. Mandy and Ben are best friends and it could appear that they should be together, but the movie allowed you to believe what you believe and did not lean into them needing to be together. We’e seen movies before where the best friends end up together but the movie didn’t make any of those scenes where one of the characters is longing for the other. They each had their own lives and desires that had nothing to do with the other. Another major thing this movie did, and I’m glad it’s in a Disney movie, is establish that girls and boys can be just friends. Best friends even. I have plenty of guy friends who I call ugly on a regular basis (because they are), but they are some of the greatest people I know. They love me and I love them, but that’s all we have, and that’s a thing. Kids should be reminded of that and if you don’t believe that, grow up!
The movie did fall into the cliche of the popular kid who seems to have it all but has daddy issues. Now, that, I saw coming, and we only heard about his dad thinking he was a failure but never saw his dad. For me, why mention it as a sticking point for the boy if we don’t see his interaction with his dad? Pick something else! It could have helped at the end, but he said he hadn’t figured out what he wanted to do with his life. Earlier in the film, it seemed like he also wanted to go to Harvard for basketball even though his dad thought that wasn’t the greatest idea because he believed he wasn’t smart enough.
I do often wonder when I watch these teen dramas if these are real issues the kids face nowadays. I don’t remember having these problems. I was also a kid who didn’t have dreams of going to Harvard. I just had the dream of going to a decent college that was not expensive. All in all, this was a solid film with no major complaints (Hooray!). I do want to say one more thing. There was a discussion in this movie about sexism in 80’s movies. (Then entire movie has an 80’s theme because that’s the theme for prom.) Ben mentioned “Revenge of the Nerds”, and I said, out loud, “Sir, why would you pick that movie?!” Terrible counter argument for a non-sexist movie in the 80’s. Do better! B+, movie! Make more movies like this that don’t follow all the cliches of a teen movie.
