Prom Dates Is Unoriginal And Takes Its Gags Too Far

Prom Dates is an uninspired teen movie that seems to know which films it wants to emulate but never takes the extra jump to feel like an original project.

The film's worst jokes are repetitive of things every teen movie fan has seen hundreds of times before, right down to the uncomfortable and unnecessary puking scenes that become downright disgusting, especially when the movie asks the audience to watch as the same character who had vomited earlier in the movie follows through on a make-out session that same night without ever showing her brush her teeth or use mouthwash after repeating the overused joke far too many times.

Hulu's film follows two high school seniors, Jess and Hannah, as they embark on a determined quest to find new prom dates following breaking up with their significant others the night before the dance. However, this friendship film never quite actually feels like it knows how to be a movie about the friendship of the main characters, nor does it ever actually offer its two leads the necessary layers to pull off the plot.

Jess' main goal throughout the movie is to become Prom Queen, a fairly common trope in teen movies. However, in this case, and with Jess being a protagonist, Prom Dates never actually offers an emotionally significant reason for why this is so important to Jess. She explains the importance of having a Prom date, which is a surface-level explanation at best, but the determination to be Prom Queen is never actually explored by the movie. It just exists as a reason to bring conflict to Jess' friendship with Hannah.

Jess' determination to be Prom Queen, and how that desire negatively impacts her friendship with Hannah, could have been interesting had Prom Dates bothered to give Jess' motivaction any sort of emotional background or layers. Why is this so important to her? Why does it appear to be a more significant factor in her life than a life-long friendship?

Hannah's storyline mostly surrounds her truing to embrace recently revealing her sexual identity, but Prom Dates basically leaves her storyline out in the cold when it goes overboard on a few vomit moments that never needed to happen in order for this character, or this storyline, to work. Instead, the puking scenes actively hinder the movie itself, which would be the case for any film or any character that is asked to undergo such a visual stunt repeatedly in such a short time span.

Since Jess and Hannah are never offered the individual character development or background they need to be interesting on their own, the drama surrounding their friendship is going through the motions at best. But, even the subplot of Jess and Hannah's brother Jacob's relationship has barely any bite to work with either.

Hannah is given barely any sort of relationship with her brother, and the dynamic between Jess and Jacob is too underdeveloped for the storyline to do its job.

While Prom Dates may follow similar tropes and beats to other classic teen films, it is held back in too many regards to earn its place among the top-ranking generation-defining teen films.