“Uglies” Trailer Features a Lot of Attractive People

It's been a few years since we've gotten a dystopian YA adaptation about a strong teenage girl who refuses to conform to society's standards. But this premise seems even more implausible than the worlds of The Hunger Games and Divergent.

In Uglies, all children are considered ugly until their 16th birthday, when they're given extreme plastic surgery and a life of luxury. Of course, some of the most attractive people on the planet play these hideous creatures. Joey King (The Kissing Booth) plays Tris - I mean Tally - who defects with a group of sexy survivalists who call themselves the Smoke. Will they be able to turn a brainwashed society against outdated laws and learn about inner beauty? Probably not in this movie, since there are two other books in the series.

The film marks McG's fifth straight movie for Netflix. It's part of a remarkable 25-year run of thoroughly mediocre films, which looks to continue here.

Uglies arrives exclusively on Netflix on September 13.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.