As I mentioned earlier, the joys of channel surfing (or even these lists of titles leaving streaming) involve discovering something you otherwise might not have watched because there’s a time limit. “Accepted” is the epitome of this. When it first came out in 2006, the film wasn’t really well received by critics or audiences. In streaming, however, this film can thrive. “Accepted” follows a high school slacker who got rejected by every single school he applied to. In order to placate his disappointed parents, he ends up creating a fake college at an abandoned psychiatric hospital and calling it the South Harmon Institute of Technology. Of course, what starts out as a very dumb gimmick ends up helping out a lot of kids, and despite many shenanigans, lessons are learned.
“Accepted” is very much a film of its time. The idea that you could fake an entire university with nothing but a persuasive website could only remotely work in an era without social media — even if it was already hard to believe in 2006. And still, that is part of its charm. This movie also has an impressive cast of actors, many of whom just before they broke big. Justin Long, a pre-“Superbad” Jonah Hill, and a pre-“Gossip Girl” Blake Lively lead the ensemble cast that also includes Ann Cusack, “Gotham” star Robin Lord Taylor, Lewis Black, and Jim O’Heir.