LOL (2012)

As a new year at school begins, Lola's heart is broken by her boyfriend, though soon she's surprised by her best friend, promising musician Kyle, who reveals his feelings for her.

Director:

Lisa Azuelos

Writers:

Lisa Azuelos (screenplay), Kamir Aïnouz (screenplay)

Stars:

Douglas Booth, Miley Cyrus, Ashley Greene

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean-Luc Bilodeau	...	Jeremy
Douglas Booth	...	Kyle
Vivian Le Borgne	...	Lily's Mother
Bridget Brown	...	Lily
Jim Carrane	...	Biology Teacher (as Jimmy Carrane)
Woody Carter	...	Male Student
Miley Cyrus	...	Lola
Felix Dayan	...	French Father
Sam Derence	...	Ashley's Father
Nora Dunn	...	Emily's Mother
Lina Esco	...	Janice
Trevor Fahnstrom	...	Ethan
George Finn	...	Chad
Rebecca Finnegan	...	Therapist
Alix Freihage	...	Young Wife

Storyline

In a world connected by YouTube, iTunes, and Facebook, Lola and her friends navigate the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging their sometimes overbearing and confused parents. When Lola's mom, Anne, "accidentally" reads her teenage daughter's racy journal, she realizes just how wide their communication gap has grown. Through hilarious and heartfelt moments between mother and daughter, LOL is a fresh coming-of-age story for modern times.

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Plot Keywords:

high school | high school romance | best friend | kissing | grandmother granddaughter relationship | 

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Taglines:

You can change your status, but not your heart.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content involving teen sexuality and drug and alcohol use, and for language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Google + Official Pinterest

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 March 2012 (Singapore)

Also Known As:

LOL: Laughing Out Loud

Filming Locations:

University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Double Feature Films, Lol Productions, Mandate Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Datasat SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"The Big Bang" by Rock Mafia appears twice during the movie: Miley Cyrus previously had a starring role in the music video for the song.

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Goofs

The movie is set in Chicago (but actually filmed in Detroit) and the RenCen is clearly shown outside of Kyle's apartment. In the next scene there are shots of Chicago.

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Quotes

Kyle: We're just friends but I just want you to know, if I were him I'd never let you go.

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Connections

References Lost: Orientation (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Dreamers"
Written by Jean-Philippe Verdin and Rebecca Delannet
Music performed by Jean-Philippe Verdin
Vocals performed by Jonathan Clay
Vocals produced by Kerry P. Brown
Remixed by Kerry P. Brown and Kevin Dippold
Music courtesy of Pathe Production under exclusive license to EMI Music France under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User Reviews

I've got a Juno poster in my room. There! I'm smart now.

In the movie, LOL, the character, Lola, has a poster for the smash-hit, Juno, hanging in her bedroom. I know, I know. Analyzing a detail as small as this might sound nitpicky but just hear me out.

Juno was a movie about a teenager who addressed the people she loved and the people she had problems with, in person. Juno revealed an ultrasound picture of her baby to its future adoptive parents, in person. She laid out an entire living room set on Paulie Bleeker's front lawn, to tell him she was pregnant, in person. The reason its main character maintained quick-witted comebacks and came up with ironic allegories, at the drop of a hat, was because of her characteristic of going out and exploring new things. That movie was so refreshing because it took place in a world in which teenagers didn't constantly have the glow of a cell phone screen, reflecting off of their faces. In fact, there was only one part in the film involving a phone conversation between two people...and both sides had their phones plugged into a jack!

So why does LOL's mentioning of such a great movie bother me? Because its own message contradicts Diablo Cody's vision and her faith in teenagers. Cody believed in a world in which adolescents might actually look up from their gadgets, turn to each other and like, talk. Hell, there actually is a scene from Wall-E, in which two morbidly obese men favor looking at monitors with video feed each other, when they're in floating chairs, side by side. Juno spits in the face of such technological dependence.

LOL, on the other hand, condones the non-stop usage of iPods, Twitter and other sites of the moment. Its lead characters are so reliant of online social networks, where every sentence is simplified and shortened, that once they finally log off, they use phrases like "it's good to love someone so much it hurts." A line like that wouldn't even make it into Juno's deleted scenes section on the DVD. LOL celebrates the idea of kids, hunching their heads over a five by three inch screen all day long, as the rest of the world passes them by. Don't get me wrong - I'm well aware that there actually are teenagers in the world who are this overly consumed. With it being near impossible to find a person between the ages of 18 and 29 NOT on a phone within a three hour period of time, writer and director, Lisa Azuelos, isn't exactly making up fiction here. But to try to portray these hypnotized kids as deep thinking and complex is wrong. How could they have the drive to reflect on who they are when they don't even put effort into typing out full words into text messages? Like I said, it's fine for characters like these to exist because there are real world people like this. But don't try dragging another film down to your level when it boasts unexplained emotions, open for interpretation while your own best moment of self-reflection consists of the line "Every year, it's weird going back to school but here we are, just going with the flow". Oo-hoo-hoo, look out, Hemingway.