Everyone hates the back to school season, but there is one movie that makes you realize that it is okay to be a social pariah or someone who is ‘least likely to succeed.’
Accepted
I first discovered this amazing 2006 movie as I was about to head off to the University of Akron for my freshman year of school. It was the summer of 2018, I don’t know if I was trying to binge watch as many Blake Lively movies as possible or Justin Long movies. Either way I found this masterpiece.
The plot of the movie is that Justin Long’s character didn’t get accepted into any accredited colleges and he is a few days away from graduating (as the audience we don’t know that time table, but it’s strongly implied that a few days after the opening scene they graduate high school). His father is not shy about expressing his disappointment in his son. One day Long’s character gets the idea to make a fake acceptance letter from a fake university’s sister school, South Harmon Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T., sorry I had to literally spell it out for you) just to appease his father’s growing anger and disappointment toward Long. Long gives the letter to his parents who are overjoyed that their son got into what is described as an excellent example of higher education. Long and his friends (one of which is Jonah Hill who got into the fake university, Harmon University (or something like that)) and three other lovable misfits didn’t get into any other legitimate colleges either and they (except for Jonal Hill) request letters to appease their nagging parents as well. They have Jonah Hill create a fake university website and hire a fake dean when Long’s father insists that they meet.
One day as they all are relaxing at the abandoned mental hospital they convert into a makeshift college, the ‘unaccepteds’ hear a knock on their door. Thinking it could be a door-to-door salesman or something (because that’s who would knock on a business’s door) Long goes to investigate. However, it is a new ‘student’ who clicked a button on their ‘university’ website; which practically reads as ‘click this and you’ll be accepted.’ Not only is there one new ‘student’ but a few truckloads of new ‘students.’ All unsuspecting victims of the ‘unaccepteds’ fraud. After finding out that none of the new ‘students’ were accepted into read, accredited universities, Long quickly decides to continue the charade and let them stay at their ‘school’ and creates classes like slacking off 101, Walking Around and Thinking About stuff, and Blowing Sh*t Up with My Mind, to name a few.
Blake Lively, Justin Long’s high school crush, also goes to the ‘real’ Harmon and doesn’t like it. She wants to take a photography class but there are too many nonsensical hurdles to jump through for her to enroll in one. Meanwhile, the main conflict of the movie is that the Harmon University President wants to convert the S.H.I.T campus (unknown to them having been an old mental hospital) into a swanky grand entrance to their university, classic Disney villain stuff. The President will go to any lengths to get this accomplished, even calling their mommies and daddies on those poor unsuspecting kids.
This movie concludes in another impassioned speech given by Long explaining to a board of school officials that S.H.I.T. should become an accredited school. I’m trying not to give away spoilers, but this is a comedy and was set and shot in the 2000s so just guess what happens next.
Review
I LOVE THIS MOVIE! I always find myself watching around August/September, I don’t know if it’s because that’s when school gets started or if it is a subconscious thing I do, but I never get sick of it.
In my mind, this movie doesn’t get old and it still holds up. There is nothing outwardly offensive which is what you find re-watching some 2000s movies now. *If I’m wrong and you watch this movie and see like 20 things that are offensive, I’m so sorry. I’m not great at seeing what is not appropriate anymore.*
I think why I love this movie, is not so much because it’s hilarious (which it is) or because it’s entertaining (which it is), but because it’s up-lifting. I don’t know about you but I wasn’t that popular in high school or undergrad. I never played sports, I am not crazy smart or skinny or rich or anything like that. So needless to say I didn’t peak. And I thank my lucky stars everyday. Because if I had peaked in high school or undergrad, I would have nowhere to go but down. And I know what you’re thinking, that that’s just something people who don’t have anything going on in their lives tell themselves . . . and maybe that’s true. But here’s what I know for sure and it’s something this movie has taught me. I may not be the best student or athlete (God knows it) or the skinniest. I may have interests that others find odd and I may have career goals that people think are absurd. But what this movie, and others like it, has taught is that there are a million (hell, a billion) freaks out there like me and none of them peaked in high school or undergrad, but when someone gave them their shot they didn’t disappoint. Justin Long’s character was not the best student; he was considered lazy but he created something amazing that made other outcasts feel amazing and proud of themselves and damn it I want to do just that.
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