JayRo Watches Movies: Accepted

I'm not sure that I've mentioned it before, but I really am a non-fan of Justin Long (to put it mildly.) His "Mac" character in the Apple ads turn me off, plus his performance in some of his other roles left me feeling non-plussed.

I say this because in spite of this, I really enjoyed Accepted and his turn as the lead character.

Accepted is a formulatic comedy with a not-so-formulatic script. General plot: Character tells lie, character must continue with lie or else be found out, character becomes good at lie, lie is discovered and everybody turns on character, character redeemed in end. In this case, the lie is Bartelby Gaines (Long) was accepted into the South Harmon Institute of Technology. The catch is that South Harmon Institute of Technology doesn't exist. Through wacky hijinx, Bartelby has to make his parents believe that SHIT (acronym of South Harmon Institute of Technology, get it?) exist, only to find that many other students believe they were also accepted into SHIT. Bartelby and his friends then proceed to run a university. Throw in Monica Moreland (played ably by Blake Lively) as Bartelby's love interest and the desire of Harmon University's dean to shut down SHIT in order to create an entrance gate, and you get your base of a plot.

What makes Accepted work is that Bartelby and friends are likeable characters, and somewhat believable as well. They play on your emotion of not being accepted, and throw in general caring. Lewis Black's turn as SHIT's dean is fantastic as well; they did not try to make Black into anything different than his normal self.

I recommend Accepted for all to watch; it is a smart, funny film that has me rethinking my non-like of Justin Long.