Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen is about nothing, and yes, it is about everything. The familiar dilemma of juggling one's dreams with the realities of school, family and self-esteem is there - but it is first & foremost about friendship, portrayed in a wonderful, natural way by Alison Pill (Ella) and Lindsay Lohan (Lola/Marie). The friendship portrayed by these two lead actors are as real as any I've seen on screen. I especially look forward to seeing Alison Pill (Pieces of April) in more first-run movies.

The movie has a fine cast, and first-rate performances in the supporting roles - Glenne Headley as the single mother, is understated but a steady, anchoring presence in the entire movie. Megan Fox is the stylish school queen-bee whose role is much more complex than on first impression. Carol Kane is hilarious as the overwrought drama teacher.

Because the script is based on a popular novel, the movie rewards the viewer who listens carefully as it has densely humorous script. There are subtle lines and touches which can be missed. One example of the original nature of this movie is the way the budding 'romantic interest' of Lola is treated as a true subplot. This movie is about friendship, not romance.

The director, Sara Sugarman, deserves a lot of the credit for adapting the book to the screen with imagination and playful flourishes which reflect the mindset of the lead character and don't get in the way of the movie. The characters come across as real people, with real lives. There is an overall loving attention to detail in editing, production design and the several subplots all have meaning and contribute to each other without contrivance.

This is an accomplished movie with a nice message which succeeds at many different levels. While under-appreciated during its original theatrical run, I predict it will stand the test of time.

Mary Elizabeth Steppe (Lindsay Lohan) is moving out of NYC kicking and whining into Dellwood, New Jersey. She lives with her mother Karen (Glenne Headly) and her younger twin sisters. She idolizes rock band Sidarthur insisting everyone should call her Lola. She makes quick friend with outsider and fellow Sidarthur fan Ella Gerard (Alison Pill). She also makes quick enemy with mean girl Carla Santini (Megan Fox). They compete for the lead in school adaptation of Pygmalion and Lola gets the lead. Leader of Sidarthur Stu Wolf (Adam Garcia) is leaving the band and there is a farewell concert/party in the city. Carla's father is their lawyer and has connections. Lola lies about her connections. Lola and Ella sneak out to NYC and have themselves a crazy adventure.

This is all very superficial. Even as it calls out the superficiality of it all, it does so superficially. It's not smart enough to dig any deeper. It's all flashy, cutesy, and has the silly imagined sequences. It's a glitter-filled view of teen girl drama done badly. Everything is over-dramatized by Lola as indicated by the title which gets a little bit tiresome. It's just not that funny and slightly annoying.

"Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" is the story of Lola Cep, played by Lindsey Lohan, trying to fit into a new town and school after moving from New York. She wants to be an actress and she creates dramatic stories about her life and like some teen aged girls she gets over dramatic about the events happening around her. It is all part of her attempt to be more interesting.

I really thought the movie could have been better.

Lohan does a great job playing the "drama queen" and for the most part her character is believable.

Her new friend Ella, played by Alison Pill, is the nice rich girl while Carla, played by Megan Fox, is the nasty bitch rich girl and Lola's main nemesis.

I was in drama club in high school and those scenes did seem believable as the group is preparing for the school musical. In fact, one year, we had a freshman girl beat our the senior girl for the lead in our school play. That caused a lot of issues just like those shown in the film. Carol Kane's Miss Baggoli was a bit too loopy but my drama directors could be strange.

The problem was the story.

The main theme of the movie, as I saw it, was Lola building this fantasy world for her life, having it crash down as lie built upon lie does eventually, then comes redemption and she becomes a better person for it in the end. Lola learns she can be interesting just being herself.

That is a nice film in itself. Unfortunately, the filmmakers couldn't leave it alone and added an unneeded big city adventure for Lola and Ella. It is understandable since we need someway to have Lola's interesting fake life uncovered but it led to an unbelievable situation when she meets her rock star obsession. I kept expecting her and Ella to get into one zany scrape after another, but that didn't happen. If you are going to waste film shooting in the big city at least have something major happen.

The other issue was one of theme.

If the theme is that lying to make oneself interesting will bring retribution - in this case Lola's humiliation in front of her classmates, then the ending of the film didn't fit the theme. I guess it was just Disney's way of getting a happy ending but the stories Lola created were so huge it was not believable that she got what she wanted in the end. She turns out to be really no better than Carla, who gets what she wants because she thinks she deserves it.

Lola was far too lucky. A little realism would have been nice.

Lindsey Lohan showed a spark that could lead her to better roles. I really think that she could be a big star a few years from now. She shined in this movie and was by far the best part of it, bad script and all. I think years from now people will be saying "Hilary who?"

Personally I thought the most interesting supporting character was Calum Cep, Lola's dad, played by Tom McCamus. Those of us who watch sci-fi shows produced in Canada may know McCamus from his role as Mason Eckhart on the "Mutant X" television series.

I myself am a teenager and took my 10 year old sister to see this movie. I won't say much as to not ruin the movie for those who have not seen it but i will give my opinion on the mood of the film and such.

If you want to see this, don't expect a deep and meaningful (or realistic) outlook on highschool life because it is your everyday teen/highschool comedy with the over-used storyline of new girl vs popular girl then new girl gets the guy and brings popular girl down.

On a better note, Lohan's character, "Lola" was an entertaining one and i enjoyed watching her over-exaggerated perspective of things. I must admit that the set up of Lola's room and the way their family lived and the clothes Lola wore were inspiring. I don't know if this is going to be the case for everyone (haha) but i know that point of the movie made it all worthwhile for me.

I'd recommend taking a younger sister/cousin/friend between about 6-12. Remember, sometimes we need a silly movie!

Lindsay Lohan plays Lola, a hip Greenwich Village teenager who moves to a new school in a Jersey suburb, where she faces Carla Santini, a girl claiming to be the most popular girl at her school, a title that Lola must have no matter what. After trying to nab the lead role in the school play, the competition between the two girls culminates at a sold-out concert by Lola's favorite band that Carla conveniently has tickets to see.

The previews made the film seem boring and for the most part it is. There's not really a story and it's hard to tell what the real intentions of the film are. There were a bunch of little stories but none of them really went anywhere. I know this film is directed towards teenage girls but they deserve better films than this. The movie was just so lame and unfunny. The whole clumsy girl act is really getting old and it wasn't really funny to begin with anyways. They were trying really hard for laughs and it just wasn't working. There were just a few small chuckles and that's it. The only reason why someone should watch this is because of Lindsay Lohan. She actually gives an entertaining performance and she saves the film from being really bad.

Sarah Sugarman does a terrible job at directing. She doesn't have one clear idea for a story, just a bunch of random scenes put together. It was pretty much just Lindsay Lohan running around all over the place. Lohan doesn't really get support from the rest of the cast since they all decide to phone in their performances. The film is also very unrealistic and it sends a bad message out to kids. For example, two thirteen (or fourteen) year old girls wouldn't go to a concert in New York and depend on a scalper to give them tickets. Then they have this scene where the two girls are in the bedroom of Sid Arthur having a pillow fight while there's a party (thrown by a rock star) going on downstairs. It was just completely stupid and unrealistic. The ending is also pretty bad since it randomly ends with Lohan kissing Sam even though they hardly focused on this romantic subplot. This film was just an uneven, unfunny mess. In the end, Lindsay Lohan is the only reason to watch this and it's really just for die hard fans. Rating 3/10