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.

"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.

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen looks like a very over-produced film (every scene features loud bright colours, neon lights, heavy costume design..etc)and the scene where Lola and Carla (Megan Fox) are sitting in the auditorium features heavy blurring, thereby making the scene a tad jarring. I did think that Lohan, Garcia and Kane gave solid performances even if the latter two didn't get as much screen time.

The film is far from the worst ever made, but it is definitely one of Lohan's weaker films, especially compared to the likes of "Freaky Friday" and "Mean girls". I don't think the film is terrible per say just a little boring and very predictable. It was clearly a good children's book, just not compelling enough a story for filming. One for younger girls I'm afraid.

CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN ** A lot of fluff and nonsense. It's about a spirited teen who moves from New York City to a dull suburb in New Jersey and faces difficulty when she enters into a new school. One of her pupils has the Most Popular Girl title that she strives to have (after all, she IS a Drama Queen!), so she takes the lead role in a school play to attain the title. The shallow screenplay is so full of holes one wonders how it managed to hold its own at the box office. Production designer Leslie MacDonald and costume designer David C. Robinson have a field day making this rather trivial production visually rich.

Lindsay Lohan does give a very entertaining performance as Lola, a girl who moves to New Jersey, and the film really starts from there. I liked the locations and the costumes, really I did, and I am 17. Lindsay's co-stars don't do too bad a job either, and I liked the soundtrack. I liked the fact that Lindsay sang, and I liked the update of Pygmalion. However, the film does have a number of failings. Like a number of people, I wasn't too keen on Sara Sugarman's directing, it seemed more like just do what you normally do and we'll capture it on screen. The script was also very clichéd and predictable, likewise with the plot. I don't think the film's rather long length gave it justice either. Overall, not as bad as some people have said, but far from the chick-flick masterpiece it yearned to be. 6/10 Bethany Cox