Starring Mae Whitman and Bella Thorne. Rating unavailable.

As high-school movies go, The DUFF has a musty sense of déjà vu. Despite the obligatory obsession with social media, it feels as if somebody took an old John Hughes script and simply changed the names. Ari Sandel directs like the whole thing has been painstakingly assembled from a handy kit of teenage stereotypes.

That’s not to say that The DUFF is entirely horrible, just that it’s packed with too many clichés from the genre. This is the kind of movie where all the teens are ironically self-aware. The adults—cursed with the burden of being teachers or parents—are either clueless or revoltingly obnoxious.

Our heroine is Bianca (Mae Whitman), a smart but frumpy senior who’s into vintage horror movies. Bianca’s wardrobe of choice? Farmers’ overalls, a lumberjack shirt, and construction boots. This is more than enough to get her labelled a DUFF—which stands for “designated ugly fat friend”.

A DUFF doesn’t need to be “ugly” or “fat”, just a chronically uncool person who hangs out with someone much more attractive and popular. In Bianca’s case, it’s her two best girlfriends, Jess (Skyler Samuels) and Casey (Bianca A. Santos). The DUFF serves as an accessible source of information for those too timid to approach a super-cool non-DUFF.

Despite her preference for washed-out T-shirts featuring bloodthirsty vampires, Bianca is far too self-assured to be an obliging DUFF. So when she finds out she’s been unjustly labelled, she enlists the aid of her childhood friend Wesley (Robbie Amell), the school football hero. He has perfectly gelled hair and does double duty as the school sex magnet. In exchange for Bianca’s help with his studies, he agrees to transform her.

What follows is a somewhat limp cross between Pygmalion and Pretty in Pink. Although the message is vaguely empowering, there isn’t a single original moment in the entire mix.