The To Do List is not great, but it’s better than your typical teenage sex film. Its story is basically realistic and coherent, the humor is raunchy but stays fairly dignified, the characters are pretty well-conceived across the board, the dialog is not bad, and they managed to make the film without relying on narration, a skill that is getting pretty rare. It’s a cute film, an homage to the days when the internet had not yet demystified everything sexual. I could see Generation X folks getting a kick out of this. I saw it with a theater full of 20-somethings, and I’m not exactly sure why they found it so entertaining, unless it was a way of laughing at their parents, or older generations in general. Then again, maybe they too long for the good ole days of innocence (and freedom from electronic devices?)

Aubrey Plaza is very cute as the awkward, brainy, 1993 high school senior who suddenly turns all of her obsessive diligence to acquiring (by force) first hand experience with every sexual act she has ever heard of. And the film also features Scott Porter, one of my favorite young character actors who is always very fun and winning in his performances. The film is structured, kind of like American Pie, around various sexual gross-out scenes which are strongly telegraphed yet which for the most part still prove amusing. And the character of the brainy girl actually develops over the course of the movie – a surprisingly real transformation into something of a sociopathic monster. The ending was a little bumpy, but all in all it was quite enjoyable.

I might have found The To Do List even more enjoyable, but my experience was marred somewhat by a guy sitting in the front row who was loudly announcing all of his feelings and opinions to the sold-out theater of NYU students and slumming hipsters. His most frequently repeated announcement was any time a character uttered something sexually provocative about Aubrey Plaza, this guy would loudly, seriously, and firmly say “God Damn Right!” After about a dozen of these emphatic utterances this got more than a little creepy, and at the end of the film I tried (but failed) to get a look at the fellow, in case poor Aubrey Plaza goes missing anytime soon. Who knows how much I would have enjoyed this movie if I was not constantly being pulled into a state of alarmed distraction.

There’s definitely worse things to see than The To Do List. If you’re in the mood for fairly dignified, teenage sexual silliness, go for it!