'Sweet' and low
How does Gandhi measure up to a "Super Sweet 16" party planner? Ask MTV, as the movie version premieres.
For anyone who enjoys watching impossibly spoiled children as they manipulate their stressed and needy parents into throwing them obscenely lavish birthday parties, allow me to recommend MTV's
"reality" series
My Super Sweet 16
.
If you like the bragging, the hissy fits, and the rampant materialism you find there, you might also appreciate MTV's Super Sweet 16: The Movie, which bows tomorrow night on MTV and is out on DVD Tuesday (talk about a quick turnaround).
It tells the less-than-gripping tale of Sarah (Amanda "AJ" Michalka, of the Disney singing sibling duo Aly and AJ) and Jackie (Regine Nehy), best friends who are planning a joint sweet 16 party, which, in an improbable moment of altruism, they decide to turn into a fund-raiser.
Trouble comes in the form of Taylor Tiara (Alyson "Aly" Michalka), who leads Jackie over to the dark side and transforms the cooperative soiree into two competing events.
The film is undermined from the beginning by MTV's conflicting desires to make its characters endearingly selfless and to advertise all the cool material perks of being a fabulously wealthy 16-year-old.
The Sarah who looks up from the price of invitations to declare, "We could buy an entire hospice in South Africa with this!" is entirely different from the one who delightedly screams when Daddy buys her a new car.
The movie really sinks to a new low when it likens throwing a sweet 16 party to the actions of Rosa Parks, the Dalai Lama, and Mohandas K. Gandhi (though I'm sure if any of them had to plan one, they'd, like, totally understand the connection).
The actors do their best with what they're given, but it's hard, since the movie isn't about character or conflict or plot. It's about money, publicity, and product placement deals with Ben & Jerry's and Chili's.
In a brilliant confluence of convenience, the DVD of Seasons 1 and 2 of My Super Sweet 16, and Aly and AJ's new CD, are all to be released July 10. The girls also start their concert tour the following day, before you have time to forget about them and their party awesomeness.
Super sweet, right? Forget Rosa Parks, the Dalai Lama, and Gandhi - this movie exists purely to make MTV, in Taylor Tiara's words, "richer than God. And Celine Dion, of course."