There's a decent script in here, and the cast infuses it with enthusiastically offbeat touches, but director Sugarman can't resist making it even zanier with fantasy sequences and editing flourishes. She then adds so many Important Life Lessons that it gets truly unbearable--trite messages about friendship and loyalty, the falseness of celebrity, the danger of telling little white lies, the courage to be yourself--right to the point where Lola actually says, "Here's what I learned"! Sugarman condescends so badly to her audience that nothing will speak to anyone over about age 5. It certainly never remotely touches the realities of teen life on anything beyond the most superficially silly level.

In addition, the adult characters are so badly whittled down that there's virtually nothing left. Kane is the only one who registers, mostly due to her wondrously deranged performance and her over-the-top costumes and make-up. Headly on the other hand is barely here at all; and Garcia's dreamboat rock star--Jim Morrison meets Steven Tyler--never has a chance to make much sense. Fortunately, Lohan is such a glittering presence at the film's centre that we can't help but love her. She and Pill dive into every scene, and Lohan shines in the musical numbers, especially during the otherwise cliched final sequence. Lindsay rocks!