Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

Hollywood has been cranking out formula product for adolescent girls regularly of late, and this Disney flick directed by Sara Sugarman is one of the weaker examples. Lindsay Lohan, who earned plaudits for Freaky Friday, stars as Mary (though she prefers Lola), a New York girl forced to relocate with her mother to a New Jersey suburb, where she befriends bedraggled neighbor Ella, with whom she shares a fanatical adoration for a rock band called Sidarthur, while also falling afoul of local princess Carla, whom she beats out for the lead in their school's musical version of Pygmalion. The plot, involving Lola and Ella's eventful trip to the Big Apple for Sidarthur's farewell concert and Carla's plan to humiliate the duo while stealing Lola's role, plays like a juvenile I Love Lucy episode, with Lola the ditzy self-promoter and Ella the hapless sidekick. As might be expected, there are a succession of clumsy twists at the end designed to teach life lessons about the importance of being yourself and not lying to your friends. Colorful, but loud and rather obnoxious, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen is the cinematic equivalent of a boy-band concert, and while it might keep 12-year-old girls amused at a slumber party, its wider appeal is nil. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions, audio commentary (by director Sara Sugarman, screenwriter Gail Parent, and producers Robert Shapiro and Jerry Leider), the six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette “Confessions From the Set,” the three-minute deleted scene “Eliza's Fantasy,” the music video “That Girl” by star Lindsay Lohan, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a tossed-off Disney ‘tween flick.] (F. Swietek)