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The To Do List is not as great as I'd hoped cuz of some blandness in the writing with really crass and unimaginative obligations met for formulaic bullshit, but there's some decent laughs here and there, my favorite Gin Blossoms song and enough charm from the great cast to make it worthwhile.

Another female-driven dirty comedy ushered into production thanks to the success of Bridesmaids, and this one wastes no time pushing the limits of what can somehow still garner an R rating. Aubrey Plaza plays a recently graduated valedictorian who, realizing she's not as sexually active as her peers, sets out to do "everything" over the summer. While the results are predictably juvenile and explicit, here's a young female character who, not used to being sexually active, finds herself navigating the ins and outs of intercourse and all the bases leading up to it without any socially-imposed guilt or shame. The composite results of her journey unexpectedly form one of the most honest and heartfelt defenses of human sexuality I've ever seen. This is a refreshingly sex-positive filth-fest, and as such the film excels most in its dirtiest jokes (the single funniest set piece in the film concerns Plaza's creative use of that pump it yourself popcorn butter in a movie theatre), even if the picture does utilize low hanging fruits as targets a little too often (Is there any doubt that Plaza's dad would be a clueless conservative who surprises with his acceptance of her sexual exploration?). The mid 90s period setting is a nice touch and not just the gimmick it appears to be (though, yeah, it is still a gimmick)-- part of the basic joke of the film is that Plaza has to turn to her peers or, more often, empirical research to get answers to sexual questions. In the age of the internet, this movie would be five minutes long!

The other impressive feat here is the revelation that contrary to the evidence of last year's abysmal Safety Not Guaranteed, Aubrey Plaza can carry a movie, and she's so much more rounded and effective here than that film or her hilarious but fairly one-note work on Parks and Recreation. The genius is of course casting Plaza as a teenager, which pitches her persona at the right age level for it to do its best damage. And the film smartly surrounds her with a lot of familiar faces-- Adam Pally, Donald Glover (and the rest of Derrick Comedy in cameo), Andy Samberg, Connie Britton, Clark Gregg, Rachel Bilson (Hilariously dead-on as the slutty older sister), and many more -- which gives Plaza more of a cushion than her last attempt at anchoring a picture. Interesting to note that this film, like last year's (admittedly far, far superior) Bachelorette, has received unusually accusatory negative reviews accusing it of being anti-feminist or falsely feminist, which is so far from the farm that you just have to marvel at how deeply rooted uneasiness with female sexuality is in our culture. This is far from a perfect film-- several of the supporting characters are problematic and every laugh out loud sex joke is seemingly matched by a groan-inducing one-- but it is sex positive in a way that doesn't undersell emotional investment while still attempting to draw a distinction that seeking sexual pleasure for yourself is an acceptable practice for women. One hopes the film's eventual availability on Netflix and cable enables some curious younger viewers to seek it out and see a dirty comedy more insightful than American Pie 8: American Fun-eral.