March 12, 2025: Spring Breaking at the Movies: From Justin to Kelly

[With oneson in college and another about to be, Spring Break is a lot more than just aconcept or a professional reality for this AmericanStudier. So this week I’llAmericanStudy a handful of cinematic portrayals of Spring Break, leading up to someweekend reflections on being a college Dad!]

On whatwasn’t new about the historic beach bomb, and what was.

Fulldisclosure: I haven’t seen more than a few clips of From Justin to Kelly (2003),the movie Wikipedianotes “is often regarded as one of the worst movies ever made” and thatreceived a 2005Razzie for “Worst ‘Musical’ of Our First 25 Years” (their delightfulscare quotes). Thanks to a Twitter recommendation from AJ Schmitz I didlisten to the HowDid This Get Made? episode on the film, which I’m quite sure wasfar more enjoyable than the movie would have been. You might nonetheless arguethat I shouldn’t be writing a blog post on a movie I haven’t watched, and I’dunderstand that critique (evidence-based analyzer that I try to be)—but life istoo short to spend 81 minutes watching FromJustin to Kelly; and in any case my plan for this post is to analyze notall the nuances of this text (probably should have used scare quotes of my ownfor both of those last couple nouns), but rather to use it to engage a coupleof pop culture contexts.

For onething, the Spring Break-set From Justinto Kelly, featuring the “acting” debuts (couldn’t resist that time) of American Idol’s first season winner andrunner-up Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini (I’m sure I could find a YouTubeclip to hyperlink there, but I like you all too much to do that to you), ispart of a long tradition of sub-par beach films starring teen idol-type actors.I’m thinking in particular about the many, many films inspired by SandraDee’s 1959 hit movie Gidget; as Iwrote in that post Gidget isn’tterrible (although I think its popularity was due more to a bunch of beautifulbodies making surfing look good than any cinematic strengths), but it doesn’tseem that we can say the same of the majority of the more than 30 “beachparty films” that were greenlit after Gidget’ssuccess and were released in the five years after 1963’s Beach Party. These films often starred attractive,popular young stars like Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, and,like From Justin to Kelly, were moreor less excuses to put those folks on the beach and hope that young audienceswould want to join them there enough to overlook the absence of plots,compelling characters, or the like. That legacy doesn’t make From Justin to Kelly any better, but itdoes make it make a bit more sense.

On theother hand, Avalon and Funicello may not have been Olivier and Hepburn, butthey were established actors, performers who had appeared in multiple filmsbefore their beach partying days. Guarini and Clarkson were cast in a filmimmediately after their time on AmericanIdol, and because of that time—Clarksonin particular has noted that she didn’t want to make the film but wascontractually obligated to do so. I’m not someone who believes that reality TVis an entirely or even consistently negative cultural presence (certain reality TVpresidents notwithstanding), but I think it’s fair to say that the trackrecord of reality TV stars going on to meaningful success in any other arena(or even in their own arena—Clarkson is one of only a few music-showstars to achieve a lasting career in the field) is a mixedone at best. You might say that even the most talented screenperformers couldn’t have saved FromJustin to Kelly, but I believe the more accurate frame is quite distinct:that this thoroughly forgettable film would never have been made at all if itweren’t for the goal of producing a vehicle for these two reality TVcontestants. This is one Spring Break story that should have stayed broken.

NextSpring Break film tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other Spring Break films or texts you’d share?