Tom Long: Film Review: 'I Love You, Beth Cooper' -- GRADE: C+

'I Love You Beth Cooper' may be a bit out of touch with the times

At the end of 2007, the teen angst movie genre seemed to have been reinvented by two wildly popular films -- "Juno" and "Superbad" -- which garnished real-feel personal crises and young angst with rapid-fire shock talk and broad bad behavior.

"Juno" went on to win a screenwriting Oscar for Diablo Cody as well as a best actress nomination for star Ellen Page, while Michael Cera, a star in both films, was the darling of Hollywood. Both movies earned well over $100 million at the box office.

But since then, the teen scene has been curiously quiet, unless you count joint-genre films -- "Twilight" (vampires), "17 Again" (time travel) or "High School Musical 3" (musical) -- or underperformers such as "Charlie Bartlett" or "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist." The classic teen high school film seemed to have burned out just as it reached a new peak.

Now along comes "I Love You, Beth Cooper," a sweet effort that touches all the bases that have been touched so many times before. Indeed, every character in this film seems lifted from some previous teen film, down to the ditzy second-best friend (Lauren Storm) who comes straight from "Mean Girls" (in which the part was played by the now-blowing-up Amanda Seyfried).

Not that there's anything wrong with that. If audiences wanted originality they wouldn't go to sequels. Consider "Beth Cooper" the equivalent of a sequel/remake to the entire genre of teen high films.

Except in leaving any serious content or true teenage wasteland raunch out of the picture completely, the movie seems to have missed the whole "Superbad"/"Juno" revolution.

As a briefly famous, recent Argentine mistress said, "You can't put the genius back in the bottle." And so, this well-made if standard teen movie comes off as oddly quaint.

Here's the story: Gawky nerd Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) begins the film by giving the valedictorian speech at his high school graduation, and in that speech he declares his love for Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere from "Heroes"), the hottest and most popular girl at school. Only problem is, he's never spoken a word to Beth Cooper.

Predictably, Beth's Neanderthal boyfriend Kevin (Shawn Roberts) gets heated up by this. Unpredictably, Beth speaks to Denis after the ceremony and he invites her to his house for a grad party, which will consist entirely of him and his only friend, Rich, played with nice nervousness by Jack T. Carpenter.

Lo and behold, Beth and her two friends show up, and soon enough Kevin comes crashing in behind them, beginning the sort of raucous chase that fuels many such films.

While running and pausing, Denis discovers that the slightly wild, lawbreaking, crazy-driving Beth is not the ideal girl he thought she was. And Beth realizes Denis is more than just a nerd. Aw.

Yes, there's public drunkenness and car crashes and assaults that should bring a SWAT team in seconds, but it's a teen movie and lessons are learned so who cares about a trashed Humvee?

No one, but the bigger question is will anyone care about "Beth Cooper"? With its attractive actors and seamless Hollywood direction by the veteran Chris Columbus ("Home Alone"), the film is something of a throwback to the '80s, or at least five years ago.

Can teen angst still be sweet, or must there be regurgitation, serious social commentary and an ever-inventive and unlikely parade of swear words? Is the mildy salacious "Beth Cooper" still too prissy for modern times, or is she that old-fashioned modern girl teens will want to return to?

A sexy cheerleader who drinks and drives too fast and causes mayhem: Are those now the good old days? We'll see.

tlong@detnews.com (313) 222-8879 Read Tom Long's blog at detnews.com/tomlongblog