I Love You, Beth Cooper

PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, some teen drinking and drug references, and brief violence

reviewed by Christopher Lyon

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The Story

With the goal of leaving nothing unsaid, high school valedictorian Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) uses his graduation speech to proclaim his love for the girl he could never bring himself to talk to. He also mockingly calls out the school bully, the school queen bee, and Beth Cooper’s angry army boyfriend. Finally, he announces that his best friend Rich (Jack Carpenter) is gay, something Rich vehemently denies.

That sets into motion a wild graduation night which starts with Denis’s dad (Alan Ruck) encouraging Denis to have fun and use lots of condoms. After an awkward non-party, Denis and Jack end up on the run from Beth Cooper’s homicidal, cocaine-addled boyfriend in Beth’s car.

Beth (Hayden Panettiere) and her two friends Cammy (Lauren London) and Treece (Lauren Sorm) turn out to be up for just about anything, including a lot of drinking, reckless driving, group showering with the guys, hitting a lavish party, saving the boys from big fights, discovering Denis’s parents having sex in a car, and finally a sexual threesome between two of the girls and Rich to test his alleged homosexuality.

Crammed between all the action are a few tender moments between Denis and Beth ripped straight from an 80s John Hughes movie screenplay.

Content Issues

This PG-13 rated teen comedy continues the recent trend of forcibly moving the envelope for what’s allowed under that rating. Sexual content includes the items listed above, plus a quick side shot of Beth naked, a boy and two girls in bed together, and lots of sexual situations and dialogue. Rough language includes uses of God’s name for swearing, along with other profanities. Teen drinking is coupled with teen driving. Older characters are said to be high on various drugs. Fighting leaves no permanent damage, but results in some bleeding.

Worldview Talking Points

We are absolutely not recommending that teens catch “I Love You, Beth Cooper.” In addition to all the obvious objectionable content, it is also painfully unfunny, panned by 92 percent of secular critics at the time of this writing.

Even so—or maybe because of that—some teens will be interested in the film. Fans of the Larry Doyle novel on which it is based and fans of “Heroes” star Hayden Panettiere may be especially drawn to the movie.

If you find that your teen has seen it, we’d encourage a conversation about the film. Maybe a few of the questions below will lead to a helpful talk about the worldview issues on display.

• How did your expectations for the movie compare with how you feel about it after seeing it? Did you like the film? Did you think it was funny? Would you choose to see it again?
• Does it bother you when a guy who is obviously a lot older plays a teenager? Is it kind of creepy when he is paired with a girl who really looks like a teenager?
• Do the characters in the movie have anything in common with you or your friends? Have you had any experiences that come anywhere close to what this group goes through on graduation night? Would you ever hope to?
• The teen characters make choices to drink alcohol, drink and drive, make out with a store clerk to buy beer illegally, get naked together, drive recklessly, fight, and have sex. Do you think they felt any of those actions were wrong? Do you think they had any moral standard for how they live their lives?
• How would you describe your moral standards? What beliefs would contribute to your decisions to participate—or not—in any of those activities?
• How often do you choose not to participate in something your friends are doing because of your beliefs about right and wrong?
• Do you have friends who are even more conservative than you who choose to opt out of things because of their own convictions about right and wrong? How do you feel about people who say “no” to certain activities because of their moral convictions?
• How would your relationship with Jesus and/or belief in God’s Word impact the choices you would make on a night like this one?
• Do you expect that high school will be the best years of your life? Why or why not?
• Do you feel pressured to make nights like prom or homecoming or graduation a bigger deal by doing things you wouldn’t normally do? Have you seen that pressure or expectation lead people to do unwise or immoral things?
• If you had a chance to have a serious conversation about your beliefs and about wisdom with either Denis or Beth, what would you say to them? Why?
• If you had a friend like Rich who was wondering if maybe he was gay, how would you talk to him about what you believe from a Christian perspective? Would it ever make sense to use guy-girl sex as a way to “test” homosexuality? Why or why not?
• Do you think it helps or hurts anything to see movies like this one? Does it ever bother you to have your generation constantly pictured in this way?

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