Accepted

Accepted is a 2006 American comedy film directed by Steve Pink (in his directorial debut) and written by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage and Mark Perez.
Plot
In the suburbs of Ohio, a group of graduated outcast high schoolers create their own fake college after being rejected from the colleges to which they applied. However, they soon realize that managing a fake college is a lot harder than actually attending one.
Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) is a persuasive senior from William McKinley High School in Wickliffe, Ohio, who, among other pranks, creates fake IDs. His gifts do not extend to grades, however, and he receives rejection letters from all the colleges to which he applies, including those with high acceptance rates.
To gain approval from his demanding father (Mark Derwin), Bartleby creates a fake college, the South Harmon Institute of Technology (SHIT). His best friend, Sherman Schrader III (Jonah Hill), who has been accepted into his father's (Jim O'Heir) prestigious alma mater, Harmon College, aids Bartleby and fellow reject Rory Thayer (Maria Thayer), who only applied to Yale University and was rejected due to legacy preferences; Darryl "Hands" Holloway (Columbus Short), who lost his athletic scholarship after an injury; and Glen (Adam Herschman), who has a low GPA and failed his SAT due to stupidity. To make the "college" seem legitimate, Bartleby convinces Sherman to create a functional website for the school.
When his father insists on meeting the dean, Bartleby hires Sherman's peculiar uncle, Dr. Ben Lewis (Lewis Black), a former philosophy professor at Harmon College, to play that role, and he leases an abandoned psychiatric hospital adjacent to Harmon College and renovates it to look like a college campus. Their plan backfires when the website, which automatically accepts any applicant, enrolls hundreds of other rejected students.
Bartleby realizes that these people have nowhere else to go, so he lets them believe that the school is real, a place where they will finally feel accepted, despite objections from his friends. After a visit to Harmon disenchants him with traditional college life, he decides to let the students create their own curriculum; this ranges from the culinary arts, sculpting, meditation, to unusual courses such as psychokinesis, a subject one eccentric kid (Jeremy Howard) wishes to study.
Bartleby creates a school newspaper (the SHIT Rag) and invents a mascot (the SHIT Sandwiches), while Lewis gives lectures about life; the students primarily spend their time partying. Meanwhile, the narcissistic and corrupt dean of Harmon College, Richard Van Horne (Anthony Heald), makes plans to construct the Van Horne Gateway, a park-like walkway similar to Yale and Harvard's, hoping to make Harmon look more prestigious and increase their number of rejected students. He dispatches Harmon's student body president Hoyt Ambrose (Travis Van Winkle) to free up the nearby properties, but when Bartleby refuses to relinquish the lease for the South Harmon property, Hoyt tries to reveal the college as a fake. The dispute turns personal, as Bartleby has been vying for the affections of Hoyt's ex-girlfriend, Monica Moreland (Blake Lively).
Hoyt exposes South Harmon as a fake institution through Sherman, who is attempting to join Hoyt's fraternity as a legacy but is constantly humiliated and abused by them. After debasing Sherman once more, the fraternity coerces him to hand over all the files he has created for South Harmon.
Hoyt contacts all the students' parents, and with Van Horne, reveals the school is a sham. Soon after, the school is forced to close, and Bartleby is at risk of prison time for fraud. However, Sherman, who has already discovered much of Harmon College's corruption, files for accreditation for South Harmon, giving Bartleby a chance to make his college legitimate. At the subsequent State of Ohio educational accreditation hearing, Bartleby makes an impassioned speech about the failures of conventional education and the importance of following one's own passions, convincing the board to grant his school a one-year probationary accreditation to test his new system and make the school adequate, thus foiling Van Horne's schemes.
The college reopens, renovated and with more students enrolling, including Sherman and Monica. In addition, Bartleby finally earns the approval of his father, who is proud his son now owns a college. As the film closes, Van Horne walks to his car in the parking lot, only to watch it suddenly explode. Bartleby watches in astonishment (or perhaps fear) as the eccentric student from earlier makes his interest in psychokinetic explosion a reality.
Cast
Justin Long as Bartleby "B" Gaines, a high school graduate who was rejected by various Colleges and created a College for rejectees
Jonah Hill as Sherman Schrader III, Bartleby's friend who got into Harmon and a legacy for the BKE Fraternity
Adam Herschman as Glen, an outcast who joined Bartleby's College and is obsessed with cooking
Columbus Short as Darryl "Hands" Holloway, a football star who lost his scholarship after an injury and joined Bartleby's College
Maria Thayer as Rory Thayer, an honor student who failed to get into Yale and joined Bartleby's College
Lewis Black as Dr. Ben Lewis, a former Harmon professor who Bartleby hires to be the Dean of his College and Sherman's uncle
Blake Lively as Monica Moreland, Bartleby's high school crush who is dating Hoyt
Mark Derwin as Jack Gaines, Bartleby's father
Ann Cusack as Diane Gaines, Bartleby's mother
Hannah Marks as Lizzie Gaines, Bartleby's little sister
Robin Lord Taylor as Abernathy Darwin Dunlap, an ADD stricken outcast who applied to Bartleby's College
Diora Baird as Kiki
Joe Hursley as Maurice / The Ringers
Jeremy Howard as Freaky Student, a student who wants to learn how to blow things up with his mind
Anthony Heald as Dean Richard Van Horne, Dean of Harmon
Travis Van Winkle as Hoyt Ambrose, head of the BKE Fraternity at Harmon and Monica's boyfriend
Kaitlin Doubleday as Gwynn
Ross Patterson as Mike McNaughton
Artie Baxter as Mike Chambers
Kellan Lutz as Dwayne
Brendan Miller as Wayne
Ray Santiago as Princeton boy
Greg Sestero as a frat boy (uncredited)
Ned Schmidtke as Dr. J. Alexander
Jim O'Heir as Sherman Schrader II, Sherman's father
Darcy Shean as Mrs. Schrader, Sherman's mother
Reception
Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes reports the film holds an approval rating of 38% based on 117 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The critical consensus reads, "Like its characters who aren’t able to meet their potential, Accepted inconsistent and ridiculous plot gets annoying, despite a few laughs." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on A+ to F scale.
Michael Buening from Allmovie gave it 3 out of 5 stars.
Box office
The film made $10,023,835 in its opening weekend and opened at No. 5 at the U.S. box office, behind Snakes on a Plane, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby third weekend, World Trade Center's second, and Step Up's second.
By the end of its run, on October 19, 2006, Accepted had grossed $36,323,505 domestically and $2,181,504 internationally, with a worldwide total of $38,505,009.
Home media
The film was released on DVD on November 14, 2006, in both widescreen and fullscreen formats. The DVD came supplied with deleted scenes and a gag reel. Accepted was also one of the newly released on the HD DVD format before the format was discontinued.
See also
References
External links
2000s English-language films
2000s sex comedy films
2006 comedy films
2006 directorial debut films
2006 films
American sex comedy films
American teen comedy films
Films about academic scandals
Films about bullying
Films about fraternities and sororities
Films directed by Steve Pink
Films set in 2006
Films set in Ohio
Films set in psychiatric hospitals
Films set in universities and colleges
Films shot in Los Angeles
Universal Pictures films
2000s American films