Uglies
Synopsis: Teens labeled as ugly are brainwashed into having plastic surgery. No, it’s not LA, it’s a future dystopian society.
You know that things are bad with young teens in America when their escape from daily life is reading about teens living in a dystopian world. How, I wondered, could stories of teens trying to survive deadly mazes or games be an escape?
Instead of sitting at school desks from 7:30 AM until dismissal seven hours later, the characters are outside running around and forming new friendships. And they are not sitting ducks for the next school shooter. Instead, they are outwitting and physically out-performing their oppressors.
Moviedom has been cashing in on successful YA book series since Jennifer Lawrence spearheaded The Hunger Games‘ four movies, which have grossed more than $3 billion.
The latest teens in dystopia movie is Uglies based on the book by Scott Westerfeld. Its star is Joey King as Tally Youngblood, a high school-aged girl who is starting to question her society’s values. She lives in a future dystopia that came about after human-driven ecological disaster and wars nearly destroyed the planet and human civilization.
The energy conundrum was solved when the discovery of a new plant fuel source was discovered. As for peace on Earth, some bozos postulated that wars are the result of uglies. Supposedly, people having to look at non-beautiful faces makes them angry enough to start blowing each other up.
The movie voiceover says something about conflict being eliminated if everyone conforms. This is like an argument for school uniforms. And everyone knows that students in uniforms never have any conflicts.
In Uglies, Joey King lives in a Brutalist dorm and goes to some sort of hybrid education and propaganda school. The kids all look like normal people with nice faces, but in their world anyone who doesn’t look like a filter’d instagram model is considered ugly. It made me wonder how Joey King’s manager approached her about the role. Joey, the perfect role for you came in: the lead ugly in Uglies.
When the teens in Uglies turn sixteen they get to have major surgery. So much fun! Everything that’s “wrong” with their faces gets fixed. I don’t know if lipo is included in the government improvement package.
Tally has this friend Peris (Chase Stokes), aka, ‘Nose’ who will soon get a nose job for his birthday. Tally plans to sneak over to the Singapore-looking city where the Pretties get to live once Nose gets his plastic surgery and moves there. I will say that there will be some drama at the party where she sees Nose –I mean New Nose. By the way, he looks exactly the same.
Tally has been indoctrinated, so she can’t wait for her sixteenth birthday, but she’s also kind of at loose ends with New Nose gone. She spends her free time air skateboarding by herself. Sometimes she gazes at holograms of her future pretty self which looks like what an LA cosmetic surgeon would do to Joey King’s face.
Then Tally meets Shay (Brianne Tju), a rebel. Shay tells Tally that they could live as their ugly selves in a place in the wilderness called the Smoke and follow some guy named David (Keith Powers). Feeling pressured, Tally yells at Shay: I don’t want to be free, I want to be pretty!
Speaking of pretty, a pretty boss of the dystopia is Laverne Cox as government official Dr. Cable. Like President Snow in The Hunger Games, she is polite, yet evil. Dr Cable takes an interest in Tally, and considers whether she can convince the now-conflicted teen to be an ugly infiltrator into the rebel society outside of the city.
We get a glimpse at the rebels whose village looks like a weekend cosplay of survivalists. We even get to meet David. I’m not sure why eighteen-year-old David was elected leader of this multi-generational society. Ironically, I think it’s because he is the prettiest among the Uglies. His compatriots are all at least above average looking people, as many actors happen to be. Or at least the ones who get hired for movies.
Being nearly sixteen, Tally is the age at which many persons have restless hormones. I didn’t assume that Tally was straight because I watch a lot of Heartstoppers where all of the teens are gay, but the set-up is pretty conventional so I correctly guessed that Tally would be straight. No doubt she will fall for hot David and his politics if she is planted into his community. Laverne Cox’s baddie should’ve considered that possibility.
There would not be much of a story without Tally venturing into the wilderness and hooking up with David and his ideas. Somehow the action scenes are sort of dull. Maybe it’s because the character development is shallow.
But I would say that Uglies would probably be a good movie for, like ten- to twelve-year-olds. The kids would be onboard for the pro-environment message and air skateboarding. Sadly, the kids might already be too brainwashed by social media’s “perfect” influencers. Instead of approving of Joy King’s visage, they might be like: Her hologram model looks better!
Maybe this is what the filmmakers are counting on, because the next book in the series is Pretties. If Joey King is an executive producer in the movie (like in Uglies), I hope she doesn’t make herself get cosmetic surgery.
P.S. Check out another YA novel to movie review from Movie Loon: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
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