Teen sex comedies have never enjoyed a very positive reputation in film circles. The very nature of the genre invites simplistic storylines filled with crude humor, questionable plot lines, and a whole heaping helping of female objectification at the hands of the usually male protagonists desperate to lose their v-card before high school ends.
While many teen sex comedies like Revenge of the Nerds and American Pie are considered classics of the genre, the lessons they teach about male-female interaction are deeply problematic. 2004’s The Girl Next Door is another addition to the genre that covers a lot of the same ground as other teen sex comedies, but it does so in surprisingly intelligent and progressive ways. Let’s take a look at how.
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What Is The Girl Next Door About?
20th Century Fox
The Girl Next Door tells the story of high school honor student Matthew, who wants to enjoy high school life properly in his final year before taking on the responsibilities of going to college. Matthew’s life is turned upside down when a gorgeous young woman named Danielle moves in next door to his house. Even more incredible is the fact that the woman seems to actually like Matthew.
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Caught up in his adolescent feelings, Matthew is amazed to learn that Danielle used to be a porn star. Up until now, the plot of the film reads like a hormonal teenager’s fevered daydream, albeit one with a great cast (Elisha Cuthbert, Emile Hirsch, Timothy Olyphant, Paul Dano, Olivia Wilde). It sounds like the tired plot of an ’80s teen sex(ist) comedy, the kind of movie where the protagonist ends up next to a beautiful and promiscuous cheerleader/alien/robot who proceeds to fulfill all his fantasies.
Subverting the Audience’s Expectations
Just when it seems The Girl Next Door is going to be a run-of-the-mill comedy about a regular guy with a porn star girlfriend, the film flips the narrative on its head. Danielle realizes that Matthew knows about her past in the adult film industry, and assumes he will judge her for it just like the rest of society judges her for her lifestyle choices.
Meanwhile, Matthew realizes that no matter what Danielle’s past was like, he has fallen in love with her as a person rather than a beautiful object. The film goes out of its way to portray Danielle as an intelligent, well-rounded character rather than a one-dimensional object of lust that so many films in its genre routinely depict beautiful women as. Even when Danielle decides to return to the world of porn, the focus is on her emotional journey that leads up to that decision.
Matthew Learns Some Hard Lessons
The one thing the vast majority of teen sex comedies have in common is that the protagonist and his friends are on an epic quest to lose their virginity to the most beautiful woman possible. The Girl Next Door does away with this tradition when, early on in the movie, Matthew refuses to bed Danielle even when she offers herself up to him.
From there the focus shifts from Matthew bedding Danielle to him trying his best to understand the world she belongs to without judgment so that they can finally start a relationship on a positive and honest note. The Girl Next Door is sometimes described as a retread of Risky Business, but the former movie goes to greater lengths to portray the female lead positively rather than judging her for her profession as an escort/adult film star.
A Sex-Positive Narrative
Most teen comedies are obsessed with the idea of sex, but they ironically rarely attempt to portray the act in a positive light. Most such comedies feature guys scheming, lying, and plotting to get intimate with female characters by any means possible. The emotional and developmental complications of sex in a young person’s life are rarely touched upon.
RELATED: 20 Must-Watch Movies About Growing UpHere again The Girl Next Door takes an unusual turn. By the end of the film, Matthew and Danielle have reconciled and become a couple. More importantly, Danielle and her friends from the industry help Matthew create a new kind of sex education video that teaches teens about safe sex in a modern and judgment-free manner. Instead of hiding his activities from his parents and teachers, Matthew is able to use the video to get a place in a good college and continue his relationship with Danielle.
Love Over Physical Intimacy
In the end, despite having all the trappings of a teen sex comedy, The Girl Next Door ends up being something more like a romantic comedy that just happens to feature protagonists ripped straight from a teen sex comedy film. The movie teaches the lesson that while sex can be fun, it should not be the basis for your entire view of the opposite gender, nor the reason why you get into a relationship with someone.
Other movies in a similar vein that came after The Girl Next Door, like Superbad and Juno, continue to explore the theme that love and emotional honesty between teenagers is more important than a race to lose your virginity. Films such as these have done a lot to bring the genre out of its misogynistic past into more modern times.
