The Girl Next Door (2004)

This review is based on the 'unrated' cut of the film.
Now here's an interesting thing: most R-rated movies about teenagers try their best to pump in as much T&A and dirty jokes as they possibly can. Most of these are awful. Then comes along this movie, which cuts out the middle man and makes an R-rated movie about teenagers and porn stars. And it's excellent! Though, even I have to admit that it's a bit inconsistent. If I had to judge the whole movie by the first half hour, I'd call it a genre defining coming of age story and knock out for the rest of the night. It's a drama at first, but that doesn't last as the sparse but effective humor of the start takes the center stage as the story gets more and more convoluted and ridiculous. The movie swaps between genuinely funny comedy, and effective drama for much of the remainder of the film. The problem here is that the comedy side of film and the drama side don't really feel like they have anything in common. It's like watching two separate movies juxtaposed on top of each other. Both are well made, but seemingly unrelated. It isn't till the very end that both films come together, the mixed-up plot reconciles itself, and you're left with the feeling of cinematic euphoria that comes from a truly good ending. Ultimately it's not the definitive genre film it could've been, but it gets enough right that it doesn't matter.

8 out of 10.