Have you been ‘Accepted’?

By Cari Holland

A high school to college plot cliché is revisited although comically refreshed.The seen-before teen movie syndrome is remedied only with literal jokes and clumsy humor in the summer’s teen-flick “Accepted.”

Bartleby (Justin Long), a smooth talking high school graduate is left with no resort but to institute his first collegiate scheme. After having every college application followed by a rejection letter, Bartleby creates his own college, the South Harmon Institute of Technology, to dupe his disappointed parents (Ann Cusack, Mark Derwin).

Not only did he fabricate his own college, but packaged it with a letterhead and a school Web site complete with a “one click away from acceptance” button. Bartleby successfully convinces his parents and they cut a $10,000 check to the “sister college” of real Harmon College in Ohio. He and his rejected friends undertake the renovation of an abandoned psychiatric hospital and stage an orientation day complete with a parent meeting.

They run into few problems until a large and liberal freshman class appears looking for acceptance courtesy of the fictitious yet functioning Web site. With a curriculum conceived and taught by students, life is peachy for the accepted slackers of South Harmon until they’re found out and put under trial by a college board of accreditation. Laughs continue throughout “Accepted” as debates of liberal arts versus ivy leagues ensue.