Publication Date: 08-17-2025

Miss March (2008) review

Dir. Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

The casual Whitest Kids U’ Know (WKUK) fan in me was curious about Miss March, but the utterly loathsome reception from critics and audiences alike led me to stay away. I mulled over watching it following the tragic death of Trevor Moore in 2021, but didn’t want a potential negative review to appear disrespectful (though I’m sure Moore himself would’ve found the humor, as he seemingly did in everything). After seeing Zach Cregger’s Weapons, I figured now was the time to visit a glaring blind-spot in the work of a filmmaker I’ve come to adore.

Contrary to the rampant negativity surrounding the film, including from Cregger himself, Miss March is often a very funny movie. Its humor, both ribald and subtle, has aged more gracefully than some other comedies of the era, and similar to other divisive flicks, like The Girl Next Door and Grandma’s Boy, I came away feeling like it executed its concept to the fullest degree, for better or for worse. I found myself not being proud of everything I laughed at, which is the sign of a crafty comedy, in my eyes.

Cregger and Moore play best friends Eugene and Tucker, respectively, who harbor wildly different personalities. The opening scene of the film is a pivotal moment in their friendship, when the pair were kids sneaking into Eugene’s brother’s bedroom to find his Michael Jordan rookie card only to discover a Playboy magazine. Tucker becomes enamored with the mag, its stories, and most importantly, its photos, to the point where he grows up to be a local sexpot and a loyal subscriber. Eugene grows up to be a dork and an abstinent advocate, who plans to lose his virginity with his girlfriend, Cindi (Raquel Alessi), after prom.

Prom happens, Tucker convinces Eugene to take a few shots, and then his pal ends up falling down a flight of stairs and landing in a coma for four years. When Eugene finally wakes up, Tucker is still with him in the hospital, while his father has left the state and Cindi has gone on to be a Playboy Bunny because of course she has. Following a wild anniversary date that leads to Tucker’s girlfriend’s firefighter brother and seemingly every city’s fire department coming after him for blood, Tucker breaks Eugene out of the hospital and the two head west to the Playboy Mansion so Eugene can get Cindi back.

Miss March moves at about a mile-a-minute. Of course it does. Written and directed by Cregger and Moore, the co-founders of the [i]WKUK[/i] troupe, it operates with the forgetful, fungible memory of sketch comedy. If a joke or a sight-gag doesn’t work, fear not. Another is on its way. In fact, Miss March‘s dependency on sight gags contributes to its detriment: close-ups of a character’s malformed penis, Eugene’s propensity to defecate his pants, two lesbians wanting our co-leads to drive them somewhere while they have sex in the backseat doesn’t equal laughs. However, Craig Robinson’s braggadocios personality as a rapper named Horsedick Dot MPEG; Cregger’s witless, beta male archetype; and Moore’s exaggerated portrayal of a single-minded douchebag all find ways to generate frequent laughs. Unrelated to anything, but Robinson reminded me of an R-rated version of Anthony Anderson’s character in Kangaroo Jack. My brain goes to weird places when I’m watching a stupid comedy.

One of the few visual gags that manages to land is at the Playboy Mansion, and involves Tucker coming across a dog and learning women will stop whatever they’re doing when a pup is in their line of sight.

It helps when you have two dudes who, even at this point in their careers, have achieved impeccable comic timing. There’s a scene at a gas station where Tucker and Eugene buy an assortment of items; Tucker opts for several of those very questionable energy pills. Later, Eugene wakes up in the car to find Tucker has passed out while driving. Turns out, he drank a bottle of Nyquil after “those Horny Goat stimulant pills I got from the gas station gave me the jitters.”

Miss March manages to tickle your funny bone in the silliest ways, even when it’s preoccupied with some juvenile, hit-and-miss sight gags. To think this movie served as the foundation for Cregger to make Barbarian and Weapons is about as funny as when you recall that the same man who played such iconic characters as “Donkey Teeth” and “Davoin Shower-Handel” went on to direct one of the most topical horror movies of the last decade. Mark Borchardt said it better than I ever could: “life is kinda cool sometimes.”

Starring: Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, Craig Robinson, Raquel Alessi, Hugh M. Hefner, and Anthony Jeselnik. Directed by: Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger.