by MALCOLM FRASER

The sophomoric campus comedy, its road paved in gold by Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, PCU and Old School, finds itself alive and well with Accepted. Some will no doubt be skeptical, but I’ll stand firmly behind this statement: It’s not only the best comedy of the year so far, but one of the best in recent memory, miles ahead of anything mainstream comedy stars have sullied their reputations with lately.

When Ohio slacker Bartleby (Justin Long) gets rejected from all the colleges he’s applied to, and finds out that a few nogoodnik friends are in the same boat, he devises a plan to get his overbearing parents off his back by forming his own fake college. If you can get over the baldly preposterous premise, the movie is sheer enjoyment from there on in, as a cavalcade of freaks, losers and weirdos turn up to “study” at the South Harmon Institute of Technology (whose acronym is exploited to maximum humour value).

The only other recognizable star is The Daily Show’s Lewis Black, who does his anti-authoritarian ranting schtick as a burnt-out academic who the gang enlist to pose as their dean. The otherwise no-name cast go above and beyond the call of duty, elevating the stock characters with their sheer likeability.

Accepted is in no way innovative; it follows the genre to the letter, from the crusty authority figures and hapless jock antagonists to the story arc of rise, fall and stirring speech that saves the day. Nonetheless, it manages to stay fresh as first-time director Steve Pink keeps the gags steadily flowing, achieving the perfect equilibrium of smart and stupid that this kind of film needs. My only complaint, as with many mainstream films of late, is with the crappy soundtrack—Hollywood needs some good music supervisors to save us from the wasteland of mall punk and macho-poetic rock.

If you don’t like this kind of movie, I’ve undoubtedly already lost you by now. If you do, you won’t be disappointed by the latest entry in the proud tradition of campus comedies.

Accepted opens Friday, Aug. 18

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