'Pumpkin' --A Real Riot of a Movie
Pumpkin's own publicity bills this movie as "an inspiring comedy about fitting in," but rest assured it, is anything but. Instead, directors Adam Larson Broder and Tony Abrams have given us a savagely funny movie about the nondisabled's attitudes towards people with disabilities.
Christina Ricci plays Carolyn McDuffy, a sorority sister at a southern California university who manages to look simultaneously matronly and adolescent with her flipped up blonde hair and tasteful short-skirted ensembles. Carolyn's sorority is locked in a bitter competition with the sorority across the way for the coveted Sorority of the Year award. Carolyn's house has an ace-in-the-hole: they've picked a "killer charity" that's sure to score them lots of points: they're going to mentor athletes competing in "The Challenged Games." The special athletes who take part in the Challenged Games are, of course, as the less politic of the sorority sisters put it, "retards."