The other day I discovered a great new British movie on dvd, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. This straight to dvd film (Stateside only) is based on the first two books of the uproariously funny Georgia Nicolson diary series by author Louise Rennison, "Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging" and "On the Brightside, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God". In the (British) words of Georgia and her Ace Gang, the movie is totally "brill!", “marvy!” and "double cool with knobs on!" In other, more American words, it is completely charming, fun and rockin'!

 

For those of you new to Georgia Nicolson, she is essentially the teen version of Bridget Jones. She is brash, funny, a little selfish, slightly confused by boys, a tad insecure but also somehow completely herself. While the film is not a close adaption of the books it is close enough to thrill fans and allow newcomers to follow the rest of the books in the series (of which there are 8 so far). Georgia lives in a British seaside town with her Mum, Dad, little sister Libby and her cat Angus and attends school with her friends, the Ace Gang, including her best mate Jas. In a nutshell, the film is all about her quest to snag the bass playing, cat loving, sex god Robbie away from the "stroppy" (mean girl), thong-wearing Lindsay, keep her parents together after her Dad goes to New Zealand for a job promotion and a have the most awesome 15^th birthday party ever!

 

Directed by Gurinder Chadha (Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice), the film was released in Britain in 2008 and became a small hit. It is filled with young actors who do a great job of bringing the witty script and characters to life. As Georgia, actress Georgia Groome is funny with a bang-on delivery of lines that convey a mix of the character’s confidence and guilelessness. The script has her accidently shaving off an eyebrow, wearing a stuffed olive costume to a party, getting a saliva filled kissing lesson and doing a spotty job with self-tanner, “I’m such a poor excuse for a girl!” she cries. In addition to all this humiliation though she also gets to “snog” (kiss) the sex god Robbie played by the completely swoonworthy Aaron Johnson.

 

Aaron (who is currently starring in the film “Kick-Ass” and will soon be seen in the anticipated, John Lennon biopic “Nowhere Boy”) could have played the role as just another cute boy love interest but he infuses Robbie with enough vulnerability and personality that it is impossible not to fall for him yourself.

 

Besides the film, the dvd is loaded with extras, including (among others): a making of doc, an anatomy of a snogging scene, cast interviews and a music video featuring Robbie’s band The Stiff Dylans (which are now an actual band, sans actor Aaron Johnson, with an album and music videos). All in all, this is a fun, entertaining film perfect for lovers of British and teen romantic comedies.