YMMV / F the Prom

• Accidental Aesop:
  • One of the main problems at the school seems to be that the principal not only doesn't intervene in the bullying, she outright encourages it, suggesting an alternate Aesop around how bullying and ostracization is facilitated by adults doing nothing or creating a hostile environment.
  • Most high school rom-coms end with the loser protagonist (Cole) becoming a couple with either the hot girl whom he's been pining for since childhood(Maddy) or the plain-Jane best friend (City) whom he finally realizes is beautiful in her own right. Cole ends the movie single and content with being nothing more than friends with either Maddy or City, sending the Aesop that the main character doesn't always get the girl and frankly, doesn't have to to be happy.
• Anvilicious: The messages about popularity and cliques are delivered with all the subtlety of a metal baseball bat hitting you in the face.
• Cliché Storm: A typical troperrific high school comedy that tries to pass off as being "relatable to teens".
• Designated Hero:
  • Maddy, who starts off in the movie double-crossing her childhood best friend in return for popularity and shunning him throughout high school, leaving him to fend for himself as a near-friendless loser. Yet we're expected to feel sorry for her when Kane cheats on her and root for her to get back together with Cole, who has found a much better and more supportive best friend in City. She also only starts hanging out with Cole and the other 'losers' and plotting to wreck prom because she personally got screwed over by her friend and boyfriend, something she actually acknowledges.
  • The unpopular kids would also count. They try to ruin a school prom just to get back at the Jerk Jocks and cheerleaders who made them miserable, but only succeed in stooping to their level. And this unfortunate line from Cole seals it:
  Cole: So, yeah. We ruined your night. So what? We didn't shoot up the school. None of us committed suicide.
  • Despite cheating on Maddy and being one of the popular kids who picked on the losers, Kane is supposedly "not really an asshole" deep down. At no point in the movie do we ever see him do anything to back this up.
• Fridge Horror: Considering how mad Cole got when Maddy got back with Kane, whom he rightly points out bullied him for the whole of high school, one can't imagine his friendship with City is going to end too well when he finds out she and Kane are going out again.
  • Abbey (aka Tig) began getting bullied severely after her boyfriend shared a sext she sent, making her an outcast and seemingly causing her Depression.
• Nausea Fuel: Larry's sweating problem. In normal cases it wouldn't be that bad, but the fact that the movie exaggerates it to have him squirt sweat everywhere like a water gun makes it really disgusting.
• Strangled by the Red String: Right near the end of the film, Felicity confronts Kane about how horrible he's been and how she wishes he were still the same sweet boy she used to date. Out of nowhere, she then reveals she still has feelings for him...and even though he's been nothing but a jackass to her the whole film, Kane reciprocates and they get back together. This is also overlooking the fact that Kane has not only been a jerk to Felicity the whole film, but he was a jerk to her friends too and had recently cheated on his last girlfriend.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The majority of the supporting outcasts are all Flat Characters with little to no characterization or story arcs besides the fact they're 'losers', and could really have been fleshed out more.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Most audience members find almost all the characters contemptible and unpleasant, to the point where it's hard to root for anyone, even the outcasts (Cole and especially Maddy can come off as Designated Heroes, while the other outcasts are pretty thinly etched as characters).
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: When Maddy confronts Marissa for stealing her boyfriend, Marissa lists off a bunch of reason why Maddy was the bad friend. These are meant to be frivolous (i.e. Maddy not tagging Marissa on social media). During this scene, Marissa claimed to have developed an eating disorder because Maddy kept calling her fat. While Maddy admits she did this, she's still dismissive towards her. Many viewers felt Marissa came off as justified in her resentment towards Maddy.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • A lot of viewers had a difficult time feeling bad for Maddy because she ditched Cole, her childhood best friend, the moment she got to high school in order to be popular. She never spoke to him once for three whole years purely because he got pantsed on his first day and she didn't want to look like a loser by association (even though it's clearly established later that Maddy hanging out with Cole actually boosts his popularity). As a result, her being betrayed by her False Friend Marissa and boyfriend Kane comes off as Laser-Guided Karma. Maddy only goes to hang out with Cole again because she personally got screwed over and then comes up with the idea to ruin prom for everyone purely to get back at Marissa and Kane. And then she changes her mind at the last minute, gets back with Kane and demands that Cole not go ahead with the plan so her night won't be ruined, which makes her come off as being the same shallow, self-absorbed Alpha Bitch she was before her supposed Character Development.
  • To a lesser extent, some audience members even came to view Cole as this by the end. He decides to ruin prom for the whole school to get back at the popular kids for bullying him, by resorting to many of the tactics they themselves use to torment him and his friends. As a result, some viewers felt he no longer had the moral high ground when he calls out the popular kids for bullying them and that he is just as petty and vindictive as they are; his comment about how "at least none of us shot up the school or committed suicide" can also come off as very insensitive. He also publicly blames Maddy for him being bullied; while Maddy is certainly a jerk for ignoring him, he never gives a similar "Reason You Suck" Speech to Kane or the people who actually bullied him (while it's true Maddy didn't try to stop or speak out against the bullying, she never actively took part), nor does he call out the teachers who ignore or enable the bullying.
  • Ken, Cole's dad, is probably supposed to come off a little sympathetic during the scene where he convinces Cole to continue on with the prom-ruining plan. He reveals he used to be prom king, and is aware of how his behavior likely led to him and Cole's mom separating. However, not only does this not justify any of his actions (especially since he spends 99% of his time in the movie making gross, sexual comments towards his son and Maddy, dating right back to when they were 14 or 15), it actually makes his character worse as it shows he's self-aware about him being an asshole but still acts that way (as opposed to just being ignorant).
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Besides the above mentioned case of Strangled by the Red String, some viewers were left completely baffled as to why Maddy would get back with Kane after he cheated and was generally a complete jerk to her. The only reason she gives for getting back with him is because she decides she wants to go to prom like a "normal girl"...even though she'd already agreed to go with Cole, or she could even just go stag. Getting back with your douchebag ex hardly seems like a requirement for enjoying prom and in fact even seems detrimental to that.

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