Beautiful Disaster (2023)

I fully expected to hate this - but, well, I didn't. "Abby" (Virginia Gardner) is fed up picking up the pieces for her gambler father so heads to college in California. First night there, she and her pal "America" (Libe Barer) head off to a student equivalent of "Fight Club" where she meets the bare knuckle champion "Travis" (Dylan Sprouse). Replete with some of his latest victim's blood on her top, she feigns a loathing for the man but... Shortly afterwards, their dorm water supply runs dry and she has to move in with her friend. Guess what? Yep, one of her new roomies is none other than the mischievous pugilist. There now follows a rather contrived - and frankly ridiculous - bet that sees her end up sharing his bed for a month, Will they, won't they? That doesn't matter - this film isn't about jeopardy. It's about pretty people having a bit of a laugh and hoping some of that rubs off on us. I found there to a bit of chemistry between the two, "Travis" is actually quite charismatic and the humour is marginally more sophisticated than we would find in, say, the interminable "After..." series of teen melodramas. It's trying to do grown up, and it makes a half-decent fist of it. The last twenty minutes are particularly daft though - and did rather ruin the thing. It certainly does not need a cinema viewing (even though there were certainly 50+ people at the screening I attended) - but even if it is too long, it's still an OK watch.