Not Cool is a 2014 American romantic comedy film directed, produced, and edited by Shane Dawson. The film centers around a group of high school friends reuniting over their Thanksgiving break during college. It is one of two films that were produced for the Starzreality competition show The Chair, where the competitors use the same screenplay to create their own film. The film stars Cherami Leigh, Shane Dawson, Drew Monson, Michelle Veintimilla, Lisa Schwartz, and Bill Laing. The film grossed $36,026 in the US against an $800,000 budget.
Plot
In a small Pennsylvania town, a group of high school friends reunite during a Thanksgiving break from their college classes. Former prom king Scott is dumped by his hyperactive, erratic girlfriend Heather and finds a new love interest in Tori. Meanwhile, Scott's younger sister Janié is approached by Joel, who tries to woo her using the knowledge he gained from her social media posts.
Cast
Cherami Leigh as Tori, is an 18-year-old girl who is the main character and narrator. She is known to be downbeat and suicidal, but then falls for her old bully, Scott, who has changed since high school.
Shane Dawson as Scott, an 18-year-old, who starts to develop feelings for one of his old high school victims after he notices she has changed.
Drew Monson as Joel, is an 18-year-old nerdy "player" who has feelings for Scott's younger sister Janie.
Michelle Veintimilla as Janie, is a 17-year-old popular girl and Scott's younger sister who looks all put together on the outside, but is lonely on the inside.
Lisa Schwartz as Marisa, Tori's successful, blind 22-year-old sister, who is marrying Gil, who Tori considers a "freak show/nutjob."
Bill Laing as Ray, Scott and Janie's father, who is selling his store that Scott and Janie love, and Joel works at, so he can be with a woman named Anastasia.
Jorie Kosel as Heather, is Scott's erratic and hyper ex-girlfriend who is obsessed with sex and anything that involves sex. She forces herself on Scott at a party, humiliating Tori when she walks in on them.
Production
Not Cool, along with Anna Martemucci's Hollidaysburg, is one of two films sponsored by the Starz reality competition show The Chair. The films vied for a $250,000 prize based on multi-platform voting system. The film cost $800,000 and took 20 days to shoot.
Release
The film was released through Starz Digital Media theatrically on September 19, 2014. The film was released digitally on September 23, 2014.
Reception
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 14% rating, based on seven reviews with an average rating of 2.1/10. On another review site; Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 for reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 1, based on 4 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike", becoming one of ten films to currently hold this rating; the other nine being 10 Rules for Sleeping Around, Chaos, inAPPropriate Comedy, Bio-Dome, The Singing Forest, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Death of a Nation, Hardbodies, and United Passions. Frank Schreck of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, stating, "Filled with ethnic stereotypes, scatological humor, profane language and characters who are not so much caricatures as cartoons, Not Cool well lives up to its title." Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times opined that the "characters are vile; the acting is terrible ; the tone is a confusing mishmash; and there’s not an original thought or joke in the thing." The Los Angeles Times also gave it a negative review, calling the film "an abyss, an insult to the craft of filmmaking, storytelling and entertainment in almost every way." On the final episode of The Chair, broadcast on November 8, 2014, it was revealed that Dawson's film won the prize. The results were tabulated with SurveyMonkey, where Not Cool averaged a 63 out of 100 in comparison to Martemucci's film which averaged a 58. In total, 39% of the votes cast were disqualified for lack of evidence that the voter viewed both films. Chris Moore, executive producer of The Chair, noted that Dawson's film was mainstream. The Chair producer Zachary Quinto called Dawson's film "ultimately a vapid waste of time," but was "glad Shane won — he set out to do what he wanted to do."
