On a recent Saturday, Disney held a special screening of Prom, an off-the-rack omnibus story centered on the sacred, American, adolescent rite of passage. I realized quickly that I was a little underdressed and way over-aged for the occasion. “Have any of you guys been to prom yet?” a publicist asked the audience, which had been carefully stocked with high schoolers. An unfamiliar pop star and the son of Sean Combs (“heir to the ‘Diddy’ empire” was his terrifying billing) were on hand to declaim the event’s sponsor (a teen site) and urge the audience to blow up Prom on Twitter and Facebook. Some of the kids were sizing me up. I knew the least cool among them could still ice me with a look. You might leave the jungle, but you never forget its rules.
In fact the film that followed the of-the-moment hard sell was a modest example of a formula that hasn’t changed in decades. Not one kilojoule past perfectly competent, Prom has sweetness, nonthreatening conflict, and enough personality to distance it from the chilling anodyne of Disney’s television vehicles. At the center of the story is Nova (Aimee Teegarden), a Nordic, symmetrical blonde who happens to look exactly like my high school’s prom queen (and my country’s Miss Teen Canada; sigh). Nova’s only interested in the crown so far as it’s harvested on time and with not a zirconia out of place. She’s the prom planning committee president and the pride of her working-class parents. She also harbors breathless ideas about prom being the one time in a high schooler’s…
Emmanuelle Vaugier Emmy Rossum Erica Leerhsen Erika Christensen Estella Warren Esther Cañadas Eva Green
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