![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/The_Secret_Lives_of_Dorks.jpg\" "\\"The_Secret_Lives_of_Dorks\\"")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Title: The Secret Lives of Dorks<\/p>\n
Director: Salom\u00e9 Breziner<\/p>\n
Starring: Gaelan Connell, Vanessa Marano, Beau Mirchoff, Riley Voelkel, Jim Belushi, Jennifer Tilly<\/B><\/p>\n
\u201cThe Secret Lives of Dorks\u201d tries to be satirical and plausible and fails at both, but it does manage to conjure up just enough heart to keep the experience from being a total grating loss.<\/p>\n
Payton (Gaelan Connell) is a dork, but for some reason he thinks he can get with Carrie (Riley Voelkel), a popular cheerleader. Making the cross clique romance even less likely is the fact that Carrie\u2019s got a boyfriend, Clark (Beau Mirchoff), and he\u2019s the captain of the football team. But this still doesn\u2019t stop Payton and when his persistence becomes too much for Carrie to handle, she decides that the only way to fix the problem is by getting Payton a girlfriend of his own.<\/p>\n
The movie\u2019s called \u201cThe Secret Lives of Dorks,\u201d but there\u2019s absolutely nothing mysterious about Payton\u2019s life. He\u2019s your typical big screen geek and he\u2019s surrounded by high school clich\u00e9s. Payton is exceedingly goofy, digs comics, and has zero game, Carrie is blond and struts around in her cheerleading uniform, Clark is the good-looking golden boy, and Samantha (Vanessa Marano), Payton\u2019s new date, isn\u2019t popular, but can be pretty when she tweezes her unibrow. On the other hand, this little arrangement the trio concocts, defies all school stereotypes, tainting the heightened high school environment and making it feel silly rather than funny.<\/p>\n
Instead of drawing the line between the popular crowd and the school dorks, Carrie and Clark talk to Payton quite a bit. They tease him and constantly reiterate that he\u2019s not part of their social circle, but they also seem genuinely interested in finding him a girl, and not just for the sake of extinguishing his crush on Carrie. By any other high school rules, such an arrangement simply cannot exist, but here, without that crossover, the narrative can\u2019t exist, so there\u2019s really no choice, but to let the issue slide.<\/p>\n
But of course, there are only so many contradictions you can take. In fact, right at the start of the film, Payton announces that he\u2019s got to find a way to build up the nerve to talk to Carrie, but then, mere seconds later, Carrie launches into a tirade about how Payton\u2019s been after her since they were children. That begs question, does Payton have memory issues? And also, is Payton so dense that he can\u2019t take a hint from multiple rejections? It puts Payton on rocky ground right from the start, so it makes it tough to get on board with the endeavor and root for him to get the girl \u2013 or at least another girl.<\/p>\n
Connell has hits and misses all throughout the film. Payton is an abrasive character to begin with, so when Connell takes certain gags over the top, the results can be cringe worthy. However, then there are other instances where, had Connell not taken his intonation, facial expressions, etc., to an exaggerated level, the gag never would have had a chance. <\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the case with the large majority of \u201cSecret Lives of Dorks.\u201d There are glimmers of smart writing and funny gags along the way, but then they\u2019re either worked to death or taken too far. There\u2019s a running Mike Ditka joke that won\u2019t register if you don\u2019t care for\/know Ditka, one too many \u201ckick me\u201d-type signs slapped on dorks\u2019 backs, and Jennifer Tilly has to be the least subtle sex-obsessed teacher in cinematic history. This highlights the main issue with the film \u2013 it\u2019s so heavy-handed, and it\u2019s often tough to place whether it\u2019s trying to be original or aiming for satire and, therefore, winds up feeling like a failed attempt at both.<\/p>\n
An element that helps, but hurts is the animated component. Jacob Chase and David Heinz did an absolutely stellar job editing the film, maintaining the ideal pace and making the transitions into the animated portions seamless, but the problem is, the animated elements aren\u2019t all that funny. They mainly represents Payton\u2019s tangents. Something happens in reality and then Payton imagines the results, carrying him well into a totally absurd version of the future. The shtick works better than it should considering the content of these components, but it\u2019s ultimately a wasted opportunity considering both the editing and animation are quite appealing. Had they developed better jokes, it could have been a truly memorable asset.<\/p>\n
Clearly \u201cSecret Lives of Dorks\u201d isn\u2019t a great film. It tries to be original, but never manages to crack the mold and that results in this hill effect; it keeps creeping up and making you think something good could be on the way, but because it never makes it to the top, winds up dribbling back down to the bottom. However, it\u2019s also impossible to say that \u201cSecret Lives of Dorks\u201d is a total failure because no matter how many times you\u2019ve rolled your eyes and scoffed at the material, the payoff is surprisingly satisfying and will even put a smile on your face, and that absolutely counts for something.<\/p>\n
Technical: B<\/p>\n
Acting: C+ <\/p>\n
Story: C-<\/p>\n
Overall: C<\/B><\/p>\n
By Perri Nemiroff<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Title: The Secret Lives of Dorks Director: Salom\u00e9 Breziner Starring: Gaelan Connell, Vanessa Marano, Beau Mirchoff, Riley Voelkel, Jim Belushi, Jennifer Tilly \u201cThe Secret Lives of Dorks\u201d tries to be satirical and plausible and fails at both, but it does manage to conjure up just enough heart to keep the experience from being a total […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":134163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,1,4],"tags":[32591,32590,3460,32593,49,32592,32589,32588,30011],"class_list":["post-134161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-news-release","category-reviews","tag-beau-mirchoff","tag-gaelan-connell","tag-jennifer-tilly","tag-jim-belushi","tag-review","tag-riley-voelkel","tag-salome-breziner","tag-the-secret-lives-of-dorks","tag-vanessa-marano"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n