The Inbetweeners Movie

Today I went to see The Inbetweeners Movie starring Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison, based on the fantastic and juvenile hit E4 series. If you know the show then this movie will do it for you - if not, watch the show on YouTube first, you need to love these characters before you can forgive them for ANY of the things they do in this movie.

This review is not exactly spoiler free, but it doesn't matter, since nobody watches this show for the plot line. I sat in a dark cinema and laughed for almost 2 hours straight today and remembered why this little show holds such high office in my heart.

I'm not a LOLer. I do the "blow out through your nose and raise the corner of your mouth" chuckle. But when I watch The Inbetweeners I LOL. A lot. And the movie - although it's not quite as laugh-out-loud-at-able as the tv series - manages to pack at least one big laugh every ten minutes. When the news of an Inbetweeners movie broke there was only one premise that could be followed. It's one that has been done before, but there was nothing else that would have worked as a movie. Yes, it's "Boys On Holiday".

And dear lord alive, what a holiday. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong, but also - since they're on the big screen - things go right too! The film follows the four on their Pussay Patrol in Malia, chasing gash across the beach and - shockingly - getting some! But it's not as straight forward as it sounds. 

As I say, it's not a very original concept, but it's effective. Ten times funnier than Kevin And Perry Go Large, thankfully. And as much as I don't want to give away the gags - of which there are MANY - I do want to mention a few of my favourite moments in the film. 

First off, Neil's "shit in the childrens' toilet" dilemma had me unable to breathe - partly due to laughing too hard, partly due to the sheer vomit-factor. It is unbelievable. Also "coke through the nose" inducing are the shapes our zeroes throw on the shiny floors of Malia's least-cool club. I now have a "dance" that is ironic and funny and entirely manageable for someone with two left feet, such as I. I cried laughing at Will's dance moves, cementing the fact that Simon Bird is a genius firmly in my mind once more. If you haven't seen him performing stand-up then search for his Student Chortle Award sets on YouTube now. 

Look out also for Jay's encounter with an ants' nest, Simon's misjudged romantic ending (I am still laughing about this, poor sod), Will's lost glasses and Neil's wonderful ways with women. 

Ah, Neil. The only member of the crew who has accepted the fact that you only live once and while on this Earth you may as well just enjoy yourself. The happiest Inbetweener, worried about nothing. He takes a large chunk of the laughs in the movie, something his character is short of in the show, I think. Also, a perfect piece of casting genius sees Anthony Head playing Will's dad (Head being the real life dad of the actress who play's Carli) and we learn, once and for all, why Will's parents split up in the first place. 

The film is often very near the knuckle - sometimes finding itself immediately on top of the knuckle - and crosses the boundary into male full frontal nudity (we see at least two of the boys' cocks - something I wish I could un-see). The romantic sub-plot is beautifully pitched and surprisingly believable - it gives hope to all of us who would call ourselves honorary Inbetweeners. I loved this movie. At last, the "loser boys on holiday" cliche actually works. It's the show's sense of sick humour and then some. Lovely!

✰✰✰✰★

...Because There's Nothing Really Wrong With Being A Bit Of A Loser, It There?

Television has a very strange view of what it's like to be young in Britain today. It's either drugs and orgies, wild parties and model looks - as seen in the hugely factually inaccurate Skins or miserable council estate going-nowheres with alcoholic parents and a penchant for petty crime - again, largely factually inaccurate and hugely unfair. I can't relate to either group. It seems that TV's representations of young people work hard to make you feel either happy that you're not one of the Gallagher kids or completely left out of the apparently electric social lives of the Skins crowd. And then something happened. Something arrived.

The Inbetweeners. Accurately portraying that little group at school who were far too cool to hang about with the nerds, but not at all cool enough to be popular in their own right. Literally walking in the no-man's land of the education system's social battlefield and taking fire from both sides. Right in the face. And often.

Constantly on the look out for "clunge" (for which read "the love of a good woman") yet never really getting any, the characters in The Inbetweeners are as accurately played as possible - without being uninteresting. I relate to Simon's borderline-stalker-like fascination with Carly. I had a crush just like that all through school... I relate to Will's apparent outsider status. I relate to Jay's constant exaggerations, nothing harmful - just a manifestation of a sensitive soul's deep want for attention and affection. And I relate to Neil's secret successes. I AM all four characters. Or, I should say, all four are a fractured caricature of my high school self, (potential romantic interests need not worry, I've grown up a lot since then).

Okay, so the show itself is so OTT that the things that happen in it, if they happened in real life, would destroy any young male's life. From vomiting over the object of your desire's younger brother, to getting so stressed about exams that you shit yourself during them... I've done neither, but it's the little things that stand out as the EVENTS. The jibes, the asides, the excruciatingly shameful accidents, the experimentation and the absolute know-fuck-all cluelessness when it comes to any aspect of "wooing the fairer sex" - I'm not proud of the fact, but seeing others squirming as much as I used to, even if only in fiction, makes me smile and feel better about myself.

If you've never seen it, please lower yourself and catch up. All three series are available to watch, for free, on SeeSaw. Switch off your brain and switch on your cringe-gland. It's filled with fantastically harrowing performances from Simon Bird (Will), Joe Thomas (Simon), James Buckley (Jay), Blake Harrison (Neil), Greg Davies (Mr Gilbert, head of Sixth) and many more! It's real laugh out loud telly and I rarely actually 'LOL' at comedy.

Ex-Public-Schoolboy Will is the heart of the show; we're retold his experiences of moving to a state comprehensive in linking narrations throughout the episodes - to great effect. Each of the four main leads are essentially good people with no clue. 

Since the episodes are only 22 minutes long (without the ads) you can watch a whole series in one sitting. And believe me, you will. If you like this sort of thing you'll love The Inbetweeners... If you think it's childish and immature, or too crude, you'll secretly love it. And it is crude. This is not one to watch with Granny. Unless she, like my Mum, would laugh at a teenager taking to a school fashion show catwalk in speedos and a top hat, with his testicle poking out the leg-hole... And there's a movie coming out this August, too - so expect even bigger laughs there! Honestly, I've never laughed so much as I do at this show. And I thought I was pretty sophisticated!