Let me first stipulate that as a writing teacher, I grade upwards of sixty essays a week. Sometimes I need company while this is going on. Sometimes I need alcohol. Sometimes I need both, and sometimes I find myself... watching a movie on the ABC Family Channel.
And sometimes that movie is Another Cinderella Story (ABC Family, DISH 180). It was, in some cases, exactly as ABC Family-ish as I was expecting... and yet, I did not turn it off. Amidst the comma splices and the refusals to say hello to the shift key, I did not turn it off.
This bit of fluff shows an actual sense of humor; the character in the wicked stepmother role is a washed-up pop diva who appears in acne cream commercials in a hilarious send up of a certain Ms. Simpson's turn on a certain infomercial. The parents of the prince character encourage him to further his teen idol career so as to buy themselves another house.
With an mp3 player standing in for the glass slipper and non-ironic references to the 2006 VMA Awards, this thing has a shelf life of about five seconds; in a decade, it'll be fodder for Mike Nelson and his fellow RiffTrax geniuses. Imagine sitting down for a movie right here in 2008 and finding it rife with references to Victrolas and President Taft.
Another Cinderella Story is at its best when it doesn't take it self so seriously-- which, unfortunately, happens a great deal towards the end. A dance-off and a boy band blunderful ending sends it right downhill, but there's an unusual edge not typically found in tween fare. The really, really sad thing is that had I seen this twenty years ago, I'd have embraced it as my own.
But then, just when I start thinking I might have liked it, I just imagine the movie's website, which asks the following: "(Lead actress) Selena Gomez rules because: A. She can sing, dance AND act B. Wizards of Waverly Place rocks C. I love her, isn't that enough? D. Just because"
Right then.
