When a charismatic high-school slacker finds himself rejected from every college he applies to, he creates a fake acceptance letter to present to his parents. The plan backfires when the parents insist on seeing the nonexistent college, forcing him to create one in a bold act of “fake it until you make it”.
Hailed as ‘Animal House’ for a new generation, Accepted released at a very timely moment in my life. The year was 2006, and I was facing graduation with the unknown prospects of college ahead of me. One day my father steps into the house from getting the mail. I heard him laugh before coming to my room to tell me I had an acceptance letter. Confused, I took the acceptance letter and saw it was for the South Harmon Institute of Technology, a fake college featured in the upcoming movie ‘Accepted’. It was a beautifully executed piece of promotional material that was sent to folks who had applied to colleges, and it guaranteed my spot in the theater for when it was released.
Accepted was the first directorial effort by film writer Steve Pink, who gave us High Fidelity in 2000 and would later go on to direct Hot Tub Time Machine. His comedic influence helped shape the story that was co-written by Mark Perez, Adam Cooper, and Bill Collage. Perez previously wrote for ‘Herbie: Fully Loaded’ and ‘The Country Bears’ while Cooper and College had both written for ‘New York Minute’, a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson comedy. Accepted would be the first comedy for this team that would set the stage for future humorous endeavors to come.
The film stars Justin Long as Bartleby Gaines, a “Ferris Bueller” archetype who charms his way through high-school only to find himself rejected by every college he planned on sliding into. With his parents, played by Mark Derwin and Ann Cusack, pressuring him about the importance of his future, Bartleby decides to buy himself some time. With help from his tech savvy friend, Sherman Schrader, Bartleby creates a fake college complete with a website and application process. When the fake acceptance letter is sent to his house, his parents finally show pride in him. He’s not out of the woods yet, as his folks insist on seeing the college in person. Bartleby quickly races the clock to transform an abandoned psychiatric institute into a fake college with his friends– the aforementioned Sherman Shrader, Glen, Rory, and Hands. The group is played by an early-career Jonah Hill, Adam Herschman, Maria Thayer, and Columbus Short. The film also features a young Blake Lively as Bartleby’s love interest, and Lewis Black as the impromptu dean of South Harmon. Black steals each scene he’s in as he gives an energetic, and brutally honest, performance that would make the likes of George Carlin proud.
The crew manage to get a convincing college up and running, with just one final hangup. The website had been accepting any and all applicants who also believed that South Harmon Institute of Technology was real. Bartleby now has to juggle maintaining a fake college for himself, and for a steady influx of students who had found themselves rejected from all other options. He’s forced to make the college work in order to continue the facade, but it begins to take a life of its own and becomes too important to turn away from. Bartleby, his friends, and the entire first generation of South Harmon Institute of Technology students all learn about their own personal passions in life and strive to pursue them and nothing is going to stand in their way. Whether it’s to oppose social norms, embrace who they are, or just to stick it to the self-righteous, and far more legitimate, Harmon college… The accidental class of South Harmon go their own way.
Steve Pink’s movie feels like a product of a more innocent time. The humor ranges from borderline cartoonish to outright sultry. Something between Nickelodeon’s iCarly series and any of the better American Pie films. It’s very much a segue into adulthood, albeit the early and often immature, stage of it. There’s also a lot of heart and character to the film itself, as it goes from full throttle on the comedy to fairly sincere in its message of striving to be whatever it is you wish to see yourself as. Beneath all of the laughs is a thought provoking conclusion that, while being incredibly unrealistic, instills a motivational sense of satisfaction not often found in films of this caliber.
Accepted still stands firm as a young adult comedy in an era where they seem to be few and far between. While it may not be the “Animal House of a new generation”, it’s still a worthwhile endeavor for anyone looking to laugh and feel a bit of optimism in an otherwise turbulent world. As it closes in on a twenty year anniversary, its value to the world of comedy hasn’t faded yet. Anyone with a kid going to college could easily throw this on for a family movie night, and deliver a little bit of something for the whole family with a whole lot of laughs. At the time of writing, Accepted is available digitally but doesn’t appear to be streaming on any subscription services. This is perhaps a good reason to check local shops that may sell physical media, because Accepted definitely deserves a spot in your film library.