LOL: Laughing Out Loud (2012)

Directed by: Lisa Azuelos | 97 minutes | comedy, drama, romance | Actors: Miley Cyrus, Ashley Greene, Douglas Booth, Demi Moore, Adam G. Sevani, Thomas Jane, Gina Gershon, Austin Nichols, Michelle Burke, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Jay Hernandez, Fisher Stevens, Marlo Thomas, Ashley Hinshaw, Nora Dunn , Ewan Bourne, Lina Esco, George Finn, Tanz Watson

The film ‘LOL: Laughing Out Loud’ is the American remake of the French ‘LOL (Laughing Out Loud) ®’ from 2008. Lisa Azuelos had considerable success in France with her French teen comedy, and also directed the American version. in itself. Her only condition was that Demi Moore would play the part of Mother Anne (in the original this job was for Sophie Marceau), otherwise she wouldn’t start. And so it happened. In addition to Demi Moore, we see teen idol Miley Cyrus in the title role.

LOL doesn’t just stand for ‘laughing out loud’, but also for the fifteen-year-old lead actress Lola, whom her friends call Lol. Lola also finds that there is very little to laugh about in her life. She is an adolescent teenager who is still in high school and has to deal with all the problems associated with her age. At the beginning of ‘LOL: Laughing Out Loud’ we see Lola being dumped by her boyfriend Chad (George Finn). What follows is really nothing more than a long, predictable ride, in which very little happens. Lola falls in love again, with Kyle (Douglas Booth) this time, but because he is in a band with her ex, this love is of course very sensitive. The relationship between Lola and her mother is also not very good; the two have grown completely apart and the fact that Lola is extremely stubborn doesn’t make it any better.

‘LOL: Laughing Out Loud’ is little more than a movie about teenagers with their countless teenage problems and insecurities. Lola argues with her mother, Lola has a problem with her father, Lola is at loggerheads with her friends and, as expected, Lola and Kyle also have some altercations. The quarrels are generally about nothing and are often based on misunderstandings. That gets annoying after a while; the movie starts to feel rather aimless. Lola’s character herself doesn’t really cooperate either, she comes across as very unsympathetic. This seems to be partly intentional, because, if we are to believe ‘LOL: Laughing Out Loud’, teenagers are just a nuisance. As a result, in most cases it leaves you cold what is happening.

The biggest problem with ‘LOL: Laughing Out Loud’, however, is that the whole movie feels so redundant, especially when you’re not in the target audience. Chances are, “LOL: Laughing Out Loud” will only appeal to girls like Lola. The film does nothing but list a series of predictable and downright uninteresting events, which will only bring some recognition to teenage girls. The most scintillating things that ‘LOL: Laughing Out Loud’ offers you are a Lola house party that turns out a little bigger than planned and a study trip to France, where the teenagers are placed with French host families and this causes the necessary miscommunication. It all means little and the final moral of the film, that you ‘just have to be yourself and that the rest will work itself out’ is downright weak. Was it really necessary to shoot 90 minutes of film and then come up with this conclusion? Probably very few would be really sad if this remake of ‘LOL (Laughing Out Loud) ®’ had never been made.