Pretty Persuasion

Like some sketch-comedy Frankenstein monster made from the cutting-room entrails of Clueless, The Opposite of Sex, To Die For, Election and Heathers, this puerile social satire is stinging only insomuch as its unsophisticated wit and overwhelming smugness are painful to sit through. Writer Skander Halim and director Marcos Siega clearly watched all of the aforementioned films before cranking out this disingenuous dark comedy about a manipulative, 15-year-old private-school tart (Evan Rachel Wood, in a role far beneath her talent) who accuses a teacher (Ron Livingston) of sexual harassment just to get famous. Unfortunately, the filmmakers didn't learn a thing from those droll, original pictures about sardonic nuance or creating a feeling of camaraderie towards an unsympathetic anti-heroine. While Pretty Persuasion fancies itself an acerbic rumination on the rampant egoism, cult of celebrity, and reckless litigiousness of 21st century American culture, it plays like nothing more than the boorish, unrefined whims of two adolescent armchair pundits. Cheeky, self-satisfied, and predictable, this is neither persuasive nor recommended. (R. Blackwelder)