Themes: Schemes and Ruses, Misfits and Outsiders, College Life
Main Cast: Justin Long, Jonah Hill, Adam Herschman, Columbus Short, Maria Thayer
Release Year: 2006
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
When the weight of rejection begins to set in after being denied entry to every college he has applied to, a high school burnout attempts to placate his mom and dad and win the heart of his dream girl by scheming with his friends to create a fake university in a hilarious comedy of artificial education directed by Steve Pink and starring Justin Long. Bartleby "B" Gaines (Long) is a high school senior whose street smarts just never seemed to translate into the classroom, and whose bad luck in love has left him pining for the unattainable Monica (Blake Lively). When Bartleby and his rebellious crew of outcasts find the frequent college rejection letters they have all been receiving bringing endless grief from their disappointed parents, they soon band together to create the fictional South Harmon Institute of Technology. After creating a believable façade in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, employing the talents of a close friend's brilliantly subversive uncle (Lewis Black) to pose as the dean, and creating a phony website in order to sell the school to their parents, Bartleby and friends soon realize that all of their hard work has paid off in ways than they never imagined. With a variety of college rejects attempting to enroll in classes at the ersatz university and the skepticism of some privileged students from a nearby college drawing unwanted attention to the South Harmon Institute of Technology, Bartleby and friends find their ruse becoming ever more difficult to maintain. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Review
For the first 30 minutes or so, when the premise is established, Accepted is a stupid but funny throwaway teen/college comedy. The cast is spirited and the writing by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, and Mark Perez and direction by Steve Pink is fast paced and off-center enough to make the material feel fresh. But after Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) and his loser friends set up fake South Harmon Institute of Technology (because they fail to make the college of their choice) and unwittingly enroll a couple hundred other kids in the process, the energy suddenly deflates and the story treads water with umpteen ill-conceived party montages until the closing, when Gaines must fight for the school's accreditation against the evil dean and ruling frat of nearby Harmon College. Besides a lack of notable story developments, Accepted has a hard time figuring out whether it wants to be an irreverent skewering of overpriced, useless higher education (represented by Lewis Black as South Harmon's ranting dean) or an earnest defense of its outsider heroes against the preppy conformist institutions they are pressured into by their parents. The "if it feels good do it" ethos of South Harmon is supposed to represent the unleashed desires of real college kids, but with no visible sex, drug use, tepid drinking, and the alleged crazy awesomeness of a half-pipe on campus, it's tamer than most college campuses. The movie skirts, but seems too corporately tame to make much of, its defining subtext: that after the pressure in high school to get into college, what kids really want to do for four years is get wasted and sit on their butts. Isn't the South Harmon experience what most people already pay for and get? ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide
Lewis Black - Uncle Ben; Blake Lively - Monica; Mark Derwin - Jack Gaines; Ann Cusack - Diane Gaines; Hannah Marks - Lizzie Gaines; Robin Lord Taylor - Abemath (A.D.D.); Diora Baird - Kiki; Joe Hursley - A Ringer; Jeremy Howard - Freaky Student; Anthony Heald - Dean Van Horne; Travis Van Winkle - Hoyt Ambrose; Kaitlin Doubleday - Gwynn; Sam Horrigan - Mike Welsh; Ross Patterson - McNaughton, Mike; Artie Baxter - Mike Chambers; Kellan Lutz - Dwayne; Brendan Miller - Wayne; Chantelle Tibbs - Confused Kid; Christian Long - Sandwich Mascot; York Fryer - S.H. Student in Hallway; Skyler Stone - S.H. Student in Hallway; Jimmy Leung - S.H. Student in Hallway; Shaun Reyes - Random S.H. Student; Matt Noble - Big Larry; Lisa Gleave - Kiki's Best Friend; Alejandra Gutierrez - Kiki's Best Friend; Jim O'Heir - Mr. Schrader; Darcy Shean - Mrs. Schrader; Jay Harik - Family Friend; Mathew Vigil - Shoe Store Boy; Debbon Ayer - Shoe Store Mother; Carla Jimenez - Shoe Store Manager; Ned Schmidtke - Board Chairman; Tim Bagley - Vice Principal Matthews; Ray Santiago - Boy Going to Princeton; Margaret Travolta - Academic Counselor; Brian Powell - Economics Teacher; Mike Daily - Stressed-Out Student; Jeff Duby - Stressed-Out Student; Scott Adsit - Drop-Off Dad; Lindy Loundagin - Drop-Off Mom; Steven E. Little - Desk Clerk; Ethan Hova - Male Graduate; Paraic McGann - BKE Pledge With Jacket; Arthur Leo - ESL Student; Criscilla Crossland - Go Go Dancer; Larke Hasstedt - Go Go Dancer; Holly Fielding - Autograph Student; Meredith Giangrande - Glen's Party Girl; Kate French - Glen's Party Girl; Christina Diaz - S.H. Testimonial Student; Zoe Di Stefano - S.H. Testimonial Student; David Carmon - S.H. Testimonial Student; Armen Weitzman - S.H. Testimonial Student; Christopher Khai - S.H. Testimonial Student; Stephanie St. Hilaire - S.H. Testimonial Student; Shameka Banks - S.H. Testimonial Student; Nicholas Garren - S.H. Testimonial Student; Louie Heredia - S.H. Testimonial Student; Matthew St. Clair - Fake ID Kid; Jamie Leffler - Fake ID Kid; Nina Nam - Fake ID Kid; Wendy Waller - Fake ID Kid; Ronnie Lewis, Jr. - Fake ID Kid; Matthew Ching - Fake ID Kid; Richard Brown - Fake ID Kid; Miylika Davis - Fake ID Kid; Laurie Meghan Phelps - Fake ID Kid; Portis Hershey - Fake ID Kid; Joseph Robinson - A Ringer; Jaime Seibert - A Ringer; Joseph Stiteler - A Ringer; Greg Lutzka - Pro Skater/BMX Rider; Chad Fernandez - Pro Skater/BMX Rider; Richard Thorne - Pro Skater/BMX Rider; Mathias Ringstrom - Pro Skater/BMX Rider; Ben Snowden - Pro Skater/BMX Rider; Mike Crum - Pro Skater/BMX Rider; Kurtis Colamonico - Pro Skater/BMX Rider; Jason Jones - Pro Skater/BMX Rider
Credit
Denise Hudson - Art Director, Jonathan Watson - Associate Producer, Jason Wilson - Associate Producer, Amanda Morgan Palmer - Associate Producer, Joseph Middleton - Casting, Dave Scott - Choreography, Genevieve Tyrrell - Costume Designer, Jonathan Watson - First Assistant Director, Steve Pink - Director, Scott Hill - Editor, Louis G. Friedman - Executive Producer, Mark Perez - Executive Producer, Brian Lutz - Executive Producer, Mike Perez - Executive Producer, Scott Allen Logan - Location Manager, David Schommer - Composer (Music Score), Michael St. Hilaire - Camera Operator, Stephen J. Ullman - Camera Operator, Rusty Smith - Production Designer, Matthew Leonetti - Cinematographer, Tom Shadyac - Producer, Michael Bostick - Producer, Viva Wang - Set Designer, Steve Cantamessa - Sound/Sound Designer, John Halaby - Sound/Sound Designer, Tom McComas - Stunts Coordinator, Matt Kutcher - Special Effects Supervisor, Louis G. Friedman - Unit Production Manager, Mark Perez - Screen Story, Mark Perez - Screenwriter, Adam Cooper - Screenwriter, Bill Collage - Screenwriter, Kathy Nelson - Executive Music Producer, Lisa Rodgers - Post Production Supervisor, Kathleen Keller - Production Coordinator, Eugene McCarthy Jr. - Properties Master, Chris Carpenter - Re-Recording Mixer, Andy Koyama - Re-Recording Mixer, Susan Bierbaum-Owen - Script Supervisor, Ryan Craig - Second Assistant Director, Michael Hilkene - Supervising Sound Editor, Odin Benitez - Supervising Sound Editor, Timothy Marshall - Chief Lighting Technician, Douglas A. Womack - Construction Coordinator, Nickolaus Brown - Costumes Supervisor, Shari Perry - Key Hairstylist, Amy Schmiederer - Key Make-up, Chris Kruize - Production Accountant, Sara Andrews-Ingrassia - Set Decorator, Technicolor Digital Intermediates - Title Design, Voni Hinkle - Department Head Hair, Nena Smarz - Department Head Makeup
Accepted is a 2006comedy film centered around would-be college freshmen, who after being rejected from all the colleges and universities to which they had applied, proceed to "create" their own "college".
Though presented as a light comedy, the film's dramatic undertone throughout is highly critical of the United States college system and the college ranking system.
Unlike most PG-13 films, Accepted has frequent use of the word shit - 62 times.[1] The term is frequently referred to as the acronym of South Harmon Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T.). It is one of few theatrically released films to bleep out a word - in this case the word "fuck" is literally bleeped out on its second usage, presumably to avoid an "R" rating for language.
Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) is a persuasive high-school senior who, among other pranks, creates fake ID's. His gifts do not extend to grades, however, and he receives rejection letters from all of the universities and colleges he applies to. In an attempt to seek approval from his strict father (Mark Derwin), Bartleby creates a fake college, the South Harmon Institute of Technology. He is aided by his friend Sherman Schrader III (Jonah Hill), who has been accepted into the prestigious Harmon College, and fellow rejects Rory (Maria Thayer), who was rejected from Yale University, the only school she applied to, Hands (Columbus Short), who lost his athletic scholarship after an injury, and Glen (Adam Herschman), who got a '0' on the SAT when he neglected to even sign his name.
To make the "college" seem legitimate, Bartleby convinces his best friend Sherman create a fully-functional website. Arriving at the conclusion that a campus is required to continue the ruse, Bartleby leases an abandoned psychiatric hospital adjacent to the campus of Harmon College and renovates it to look like a college campus. When his father insists on meeting the Dean, he hires Schrader's uncle, Ben Lewis (Lewis Black), to play that role.
The seemingly innocent ploy quickly spins out of control when the website, which automatically accepts any applicant, enrolls hundreds of other rejected students. Bartleby realizes that these people have nowhere else to go, so lets them believe that the school is real. After a visit to Harmon disenchants him with traditional college life, he has the students make up their own classes and be their own teachers. A giant whiteboard is put up in which students write down what they want to learn.
Meanwhile, the Dean of the nearby Harmon College, Richard Van Horne (Anthony Heald), makes plans to construct the Van Horne Gateway, an adjacent park-like "verdant buffer zone to keep knowledge in--and ignorance out." He dispatches Hoyt Ambrose (Travis Van Winkle) to free up the nearby properties in preparation. When Bartleby refuses to relinquish the lease for the South Harmon Institute of Technology property, Hoyt sets to work trying to reveal the college as a fake. In a sub-plot, Bartleby also vies with Hoyt for the affections of Harmon College student — and Hoyt's girlfriend — Monica (Blake Lively).
Hoyt exposes South Harmon Institute of Technology as a fake school through Sherman, who is attempting to join his fraternity. After having Sherman beaten up, Hoyt forces him to hand over all the files he has created for the Institute. He then contacts all the students' parents to expose the school as a fake. The Institute is quickly shut down, but Sherman had taken the initiative to file for accreditation beforehand, giving Bartleby a chance to make his school legitimate.
At the State of Ohio educational accreditation hearing, Bartleby makes an impassioned speech about the failures of conventional education, convincing the board to grant his school a one-year probation to test his new system. The Institute is started up once again, with Sherman and Monica now attending.
Accepted was released to mostly negative reviews with an average score of 36 from Rotten Tomatoes[2]. It received 3 out of 5 stars from Allmovie[3] and a 47 from Metacritic[4]. Despite the negative reviews, the film made an estimated $10,023,835 during its opening and $36,323,505 by its time of closing on October 19, 2006[5].
Home release
The movie was released on VHS and DVD on November 14, 2006, in both widescreen and fullscreen.
"Holiday" by Green Day. There has been some confusion over the fact that Weezer and Green Day each have a song by the title "Holiday" in the movie, but only the Weezer song is on the official soundtrack.
"Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones is played at a party held at South Harmon, and Bartleby sings the majority of it on stage. The DVD also features a music video of the song featuring the cast and crew.
