'The To Do List' Talking Points: 10 Essential Facts
In case you missed the memo (called Sex and the City), we ladies like our sex comedies as raunch as the next guy. And The To Do List, this weekend's entry into the "losing it" subgenre of sex comedies, is just the kind of raunch we love most --- not too graphic or demeaning, just enough to make you not want to watch next to your parents. If, like the movie's control freak valedictorian Brandy Klark (Aubrey Plaza), you don't want to enter the theater without doing your homework first, read on for the 10 essential things you should know about this weekend's new release:
1. You don't have to have gone to school in the '90s to enjoy it, but it's like 100 times funnier if you can sympathize with the characters' terrible taste in music, hideous prints, worship of Eddie Vedder and Hillary Clinton, and complete lack of cell phones or Google. Picture this, kids: instead of Tumblr, you would decorate your wall and your Trapper Keeper with your favorite magazine articles and spreads.
2. The thing that made Aubrey Plaza most uncomfortable about all the sex scenes in the movie was the breathing. "Breathing is a private thing," she told MTV News at Comic-Con last week. "You don't want a bunch of people watching you breathe heavily."
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3. To get authentic 1993 clothing, the costume designer Trayce Gigi Field found actual wardrobe items from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills, 90210. So yes, some of Donald Glover's overalls were probably once worn by Will Smith.
4. Writer director Maggie Carey is one funny lady, who also happens to be married to Bill Hader (who plays Brandy's boss at the pool). And if you thought she based this story on her own childhood in Idaho, you'd be right.
5. Aubrey Plaza co-starred on The Jeannie Tate Show, the Web series Maggie co-created with Liz Cackowski, which stars Cackowski as a soccer mom who interviews celebrities as she drives around in her minivan. Here's the episode featuring Hader as the guest.
6. Scott Porter, a.k.a. Jason Street from Friday Night Lights, is getting hotter with age.
7. In another nod to our favorite '90s "teen" shows, here are the ages of the "teens" and "college kids" in the movie: Alia Shawkat (24), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (24), Sarah Steele (24), Johnny Simmons (26), Aubrey Plaza (29), Donald Glover (29), Rachel Bilson (31), Scott Porter (34) and Bill Hader (35).
8. I would really like Connie Britton and Clark Gregg to be my parents.
9. In the making of this film, everyone learned something new. "I learned what bumping donuts is," Porter told MTV. "It's like scissor sisters."
10. You should probably have a Beaches slumber party with your besties sometime soon.
[Photos: CBS Films]