The To Do List 2013

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: This movie is smarter and better acted and just plain funnier than most of its predecessors in the my-first-time genre, no matter which sex is losing what. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Like the fumbling around of first-time sex, The To Do List has its enjoyable moments but doesn't exactly feel like a peak experience. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Those with a high tolerance for good-natured "teen" raunch could do worse. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: Hits its fair share of outrageously funny highs amid lots of so-so filler, but stays buoyant and likable throughout thanks to the winning presence of "Parks and Recreation" star Aubrey Plaza in the lead. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Liberated from her trademark snark, Plaza tackles the awkwardness of fledgling foreplay with screwball abandon. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: The film is flush with done-to-death gross-out gags, bodily fluids serving as too many punch lines. Yes, girls can dish out F-bombs and body objectification as well as the boys can, but that shouldn't be the whole joke. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: In its exuberantly smutty way, "The To Do List" is revolutionary: A teen sex comedy where the girls get to play nasty and the boys stand around looking terrified. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This raunchy teen comedy is novel insofar as it recasts familiar gross-out gags from a female perspective; otherwise it's basically an American Pie knockoff. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This is a welcome female-centric variation on a familiar theme, not the first to deal with a teenage girl's de-virginization project, but certainly a minority report in a field crowded with boys trying to Get Some ... Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It captures how even when sex gets this purposeful, it's in a different way for girls than for boys. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: A star-studded but scattershot affair that tackles its comedic obligations as dutifully as its heroine pursues her sexual conquests. Read more

Justin Lowe, Hollywood Reporter: Writer-director Maggie Carey's feature debut boasts a crack ensemble cast led by Aubrey Plaza that evocatively captures the carefree elation of youthful summer romance. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Neither supergood nor superbad, but passable doesn't exactly raise the bar. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The To Do List is cheerfully unconcerned with realism; the cast is so obviously over high school age it almost becomes part of the joke. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: So determined to one-up the boys that it goes overboard, misses its mark and accidentally makes an entirely different kind of statement. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: It's good-natured and raucous, with many scenes that are just sketched but a few that are truly funny. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Even when the film connects, I can't help feel that it's mostly because it's set the target too low. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: [It] thinks a sex-obsessed version of a John Hughes comedy by its very nature is hilarious. It's not, but there are still some things to like here. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: "The To Do List" doesn't reinvent the wheel; we all know the "summer that changed everything" trope. But it's startling when you realize how rare it is to see a girl chasing sexual experience so doggedly - and with such a lighthearted tone. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Not since the schmaltzy Bucket List has there been a more blatant example of checklist comedy than the ultra-raunchy The To Do List. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: It shows how far the teenage sex comedy has come, and how different it looks when a female writer or director is behind the camera. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The film feels a little like what might happen if the producers of films like Bridesmaids found a lost John Hughes script and adapted it for 2013 audiences. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Does Carey go too far? Duh. But why gripe when you can't stop laughing? Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: For the most part it's a cheerful and sprightly comedy that delivers moderate laughs and should connect with the younger female audience that Hollywood largely ignores in the summer. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "The To Do List" is a romantic comedy with no romance and little comedy, but with an ugliness of spirit that's surprising and unrelenting. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Many of The To Do List's jokes have this first-draft, is-that-all-there-is? quality. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A middling showcase for rising star Aubrey Plaza. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Don't go to The To Do List expecting a comedy genre-buster along the lines of Bridesmaids. Rather it's more of a one-joke repeater set in the hot Boise, Idaho, summer of 1993. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: It is to comedy what an abstinence pledge is to sex. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: Like first sex, writer-director Maggie Carey's debut feature, The To Do List, is quick and messy, fitfully pleasurable, full of promise but not quite adept at getting everyone off. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: By proudly wearing its "otherness" (a word I use ironically) on its sleeve, The To Do List feels fresh and strange and wondrously new. It shouldn't, but it does. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: Boys don't need to be the only ones having fun in an ultra-crass comedy. Read more