Disney+ Hotstar is bringing back the 2000s nostalgia by giving us some brilliant high school romcoms. The Prom Pact review explores how the film manages to pay an ode to them while also introducing some new and original tropes. It stars Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Milo Manheim, Chelah Horsdal, Margaret Cho, Blake Draper, Christopher Shyer, Jason Sakaki, Arica Himmel, Nolen Dubuc, Monique A. Green, David S. Jung, Jasmine Vega, Savannah Miller, Kelcey Mawema, Sean Amsing, Laura Mac and Al McFoster, alongside other characters.
Prom Pact is directed by Anya Adams and written by Anthony Lombardo. It follows the life of an aspiring Harvard student Mandy Yang who is trying her level best to get into the ivy league school while also balancing her best friend and newfound romantic interest.
-The Prom Pact Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-
There is something so relaxing about watching a rom-com set in high school. The nostalgia of bullies using all their bigotry to make fun of people and teachers who barely understand their course, let alone their students. Well, Disney has decided to up their game by being inclusive of people who aren’t just monoliths. In this film, we expect to see some serious main character energy, where the protagonist goes to great lengths to get exactly what she wants (including a romantic partner), even if it means disregarding their best friend.
However, Prom Pact swiftly moves past that narrative to provide its viewers with something new and fresh. It does stick to some of the archaic tropes of conventional romantic comedies but decides to give each character their depth even when they seem to portray archetypes of different kinds. Fortunately, the supporting character, or the best friend, so to speak, has their own arc and is given enough of a backstory that we don’t feel like they exist for the main character.
Additionally, the structure of this film is fantastic. It moves through the checkpoints pretty clearly and gives appropriate time to each of them without making it feel like they’re overexposing any storyline. Including hair and makeup, the artists do a brilliant job of making them look like characters within a high school climate. With different ranges of expression through clothing, makeup and hair, this film manages to show a realistic high-school cohort with minimal exaggeration.
Films like these often move audiences to question whether schools in the United States actually do that or not, and unfortunately, this film falls right under that trap. There is still this sense of hyper-nostalgia for the genre of those days, but there is an opportunity for creators in the present to move away from this stereotype and give viewers something fresh. Moreover, recycling the same tropes by changing a few things makes it seem like a cheap shot at making a change.
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It is obvious not to expect Disney to change overnight. They have been known to move at a snail’s pace when it comes to catching up with the present likeable forms of entertainment. What films like this do is give other studios the opportunity to exploit character archetypes and tropes from these films in order to make money. High School is a rich and formative experience for a lot of people, could be good or bad, but there are new angles to explore when it comes to telling their stories.
What building new kinds of characters within the same archetypes does is attribute new stereotypes to them, especially when it comes to the female characters. This movie also fails to take that into account when it was written. Of all the barriers it did manage to break, it also descends to make extreme dichotomies when it comes to the female representation in the film.
Prom Pact Review: Final Thoughts
Most people don’t debate the psycho-social and cultural effects of these films on the collective psyche, so it is pretty fun to watch. It doesn’t make you want to pull any character’s hair and cautiously blame every negative situation on the circumstances rather putting the characters in difficult positions. What it does well is exploring how they might react even when circumstances are the ones to blame and not the people.
It is super fun for a night in and a sleepover with some ice cream and maybe even beer if that’s your jam. It might still fall into hyper femininity to like romcoms. As time passes, more people have come to appreciate the genre and the enjoyment it brings to people.
Prom Pact is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. What do you think of high school romcoms? Are they getting better? Let us know in the comments below.
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