David Boreanaz

Some girls get it good Angel befuddled in side-splitting teen comedy These Girls

Last week, if someone tried to convince me that David Boreanaz (TV’s Angel) was a good actor, I would have spit on them, called them a liar and probably got into a full-on donnybrook (or not, but still...). Today, however, I am a changed man coming to terms with my erroneous preconceived notions. They say it takes a good actor to do comedy, and if that’s true, Angel’s got some chops, yo.

These Girls, from John Hazlett, is more than just a teen comedy, a sex comedy, a teen sex comedy, or any other permutations of those terms. Boasting a fine cast, highlighted by the always-impressive Montreal-born Caroline Dhavernas (from TV’s Wonderfalls), These Girls is funny at times and quite serious at others, all the while effectively encapsulating the carefree, me-first days of youth. In it the titular girls, played by the captivating and über-sardonic Dhavernas, former MuchMusic VJ Amanda Walsh and newcomer Holly Lewis, have a conundrum. See, all of them are fucking the neighbourhood stud (Boreanaz) even though they’re jailbait and he’s 32 and married with a kid. Like all good friends, they eventually decide to share and share alike, blackmailing him into, ahem, servicing them. Complications ensue, of course, when Boreanaz, tired of the continual strain of being a glorified gas pump, plans his escape.

This is a funny, funny film. The unlikely mélange of Dhavernas’s now-trademark sarcastic wit and Lewis’s ultra-keen Bible-and-baseball nerd (akin to Alyson Hannigan’s American Pie band geek) plays well against Boreanaz’s befuddled, in-over-his-head hunk, whose facial expressions alone are worth the price of admission. Walsh, for her part, is ravishing throughout, despite the unevenness of her performance due to the character’s stock quality. That said, the screenplay (adapted from Vivienne Laxdal’s stage play) shows flashes of zip here and there, demonstrating a sharp understanding of the inner workings of the minds of young girls.

If good first impressions are as important as they say, then maybe I had my good favour button pushed during the opening credit sequence of These Girls. From Metric’s Combat Baby, one of my favourite songs, to the quirky pastels and the high-school notebook scrawl announcing the players and the production team, I was hooked. But to only appreciate the film by way of its ephemeral details would be shortsighted. Sort of like the worldview of a trio of teenaged girls - old enough to know better yet still enamoured of the trappings of youthful naiveté.