It’s not hard to give out superlatives to the class of mid- to late-’90s teen rom-coms. The best is Clueless, which reignited the genre after it went into hibernation following John Hughes’ domination in the 1980s. The smartest is 10 Things I Hate About You, with its stellar cast and thoughtful feminism. The weirdest is Never Been Kissed, with its ethically squicky undercover reporter premise. And the raunchiest is obviously American Pie. But the distinction of the most ’90s teen rom-com goes to She’s All That, an urtext for the high school rom-com genre that’s so ridiculous its plot barely even needed to be exaggerated for a big screen parody. She’s All That is self-aware without being satirical, knowingly preposterous but also utterly earnest. “The essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration,” Susan Sontag once wrote. By that definition, She’s All That is a high-camp masterpiece.
It’s also the film that the Netflix algorithm decided needed a gender-flipped remake starring TikTok’s best and brightest. He’s All That will attempt to capture audiences’ hearts the way the original did when it unexpectedly took the January 1999 box office by storm. Made for a budget of about $10 million, She’s All That went on to earn $103 million worldwide and overcome lackluster reviews to cement itself as a generation-defining teen movie. In fact, the rom-com landscape would probably look a whole lot different without the tropes that She’s All That solidified with its story of school stud Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and his Pygmalion-style bet that he can make any girl prom queen—even artsy loner Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook).
Like a lot of cheesy rom-coms, She’s All That toes the line between something you enjoy ironically and sincerely. One of the movie’s funniest scenes is entirely unintentional, as Zack melodramatically yells at his dad (Tim Matheson) about the difficulties of picking between multiple Ivy League schools. Yet there are some rom-com moments that are genuinely swoon-worthy too, particularly anytime Cook and Prinze Jr. just stare at each other longingly. It’s that mix that makes She’s All That true camp rather than just campy. While there are moments where it comes close to crossing the Failure To Launch threshold of a rom-com that’s so absurd it becomes a meta parody of itself, there’s just enough heart to keep it in more sincere territory—even as its winking references to everything from The Real World to Pretty Woman let the audience know that it’s (mostly) in on the joke.
It’s why I can’t get too worked up about the sexism inherent in She’s All That’s makeover premise. In fact, I’d argue that, karmically, She’s All That giving us a shared cultural lexicon for dissecting those tropes outweighs whatever problematic elements it put out into the universe to begin with. (“Guys, she’s got glasses and a ponytail… There’s no way she could be prom queen!” Chris Evans laments in the She’s All That send-up, Not Another Teen Movie.) And, anyway, I tend to agree with Mindy Kaling’s assessment that romantic comedies are often best enjoyed as a subgenre of sci-fi, “in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world.”
So while there were perhaps some young women who saw She’s All That and decided the only way to win a guy was to put on a slinky red dress and walk down the stairs in slow motion to Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me,” I suspect that most understood they shouldn’t take meaningful life lessons from a movie that features Usher as a high school DJ who reports on popular kid breakups and directs an inexplicably choreographed group dance number at prom. (Director Robert Iscove—who was coming off the Brandy Cinderella TV movie—was gunning for a job directing the Chicago movie musical adaptation, and was hoping to use the prom scene as an unofficial audition.)
She’s All That is more goofily self-aware than many acknowledge, starting with the funny subversion that Laney is a nerdy outcast who isn’t actually good at school, while Zack is a popular jock with the fourth highest GPA in their class. She’s All That has some genuinely solid comedy throughout, including Zack’s baffled reaction to Laney’s bizzaro performance art and a runner where Laney’s dad (Kevin Pollak) keeps getting Jeopardy questions wrong. When Zack tries to smooth talk Laney with a compliment about her eyes, she retorts with the hilariously convoluted comeback, “Oh, please… You wanna know about art? When the class president starts touching my face on darkened street corners and talking about my eyes, there’s a word for it. There’s an entire movement in the ’20s. It’s called Surreal.” And Iscove also offers a few moments of genuinely creative filmmaking, like a flashback sequence where queen bee Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) literally brings Zack into her memory of falling in love with fictional Real World star Brock Hudson (Matthew Lillard) during spring break.
Rewatching She’s All That today, what stands out most is how many members of its young cast were destined for stardom—a byproduct, unfortunately, of Harvey Weinstein’s bullish involvement as a producer. Zack and Laney’s high school world is rounded out by characters played by Paul Walker, Dulé Hill, Gabrielle Union, Anna Paquin, Kieran Culkin, Elden Henson, Clea DuVall, Lil’ Kim, and even (via a brief, silent appearance) Milo Ventimiglia. The biggest key to She’s All That’s success is that everyone involved seems to have a keen sense of exactly what kind of movie they’re making. Prinze Jr. put it in John Hughes terms for a 15th anniversary retrospective piece: “Some Kind Of Wonderful was never going to be The Breakfast Club, because that’s this beautiful play that somehow works as a movie, but it was still a movie that reached out to the jocks and the outcasts, and if She’s All That could be like Some Kind Of Wonderful, I thought that would be great.”
The cast all play to the lighter side of the material, and the leads come across as the two most non-threatening human beings in the world. Cook’s Laney is like a training wheels version of an angry alt-girl—especially compared to the much more authentically “scary and inaccessible” performance Julia Stiles gave in 10 Things I Hate About You just a few months later. Laney’s prickly posture feels like such an act that it barely even registers when Zack helps her strip it away. In fact, it’s Cook’s inherent sweetness that makes it so memorable when Laney unexpectedly gets to deliver the PG-13 movie’s one f-bomb: “Am I a fucking bet?!?” The iconic line was written by none other than M. Night Shyamalan, who did an uncredited polish on R. Lee Fleming, Jr.’s original screenplay.
Prinze Jr., meanwhile, is pitch-perfect casting for a teenage soccer bro—an archetype that offers a different energy than the aggression of a football bro or the entitlement of a lacrosse bro. As a soccer bro, Zack has the confidence of a jock but also the sensitivity to look out for Laney’s little brother with a casual “Everything copacetic?” He’s gotten into impressive schools like Yale, Harvard, and Dartmouth, only to let half the admissions acceptance deadlines lapse because he’s so racked with indecision. He’s obsessed with his social standing at school, but also so lacking in self-consciousness that he casually improvises a hacky sack spoken word poem at an avant-garde performance space. For all his academic prowess, Zack is mostly just a sweet, dumb himbo, which makes it easier to give him the benefit of the doubt when he says things like, “I made that bet before l knew you, Laney. Before l really knew me.”
In fact, it probably makes more sense that Laney falls for the misguided but clearly kindhearted Zack than it does that Eliza Doolittle falls for the haughtily cruel Henry Higgins in the other famous Pygmalion riff, My Fair Lady. If there’s a thesis to She’s All That, it’s that high school is a strange ecosystem where social hierarchies and boundaries are less rigid than they seem to be—and where pretty much everyone needs to be reminded that the identity they’ve carved out as a teen doesn’t have to be the one that follows them for their whole lives. Zack brings Laney out of her shell and shows her she can fit in wherever she chooses, which will presumably give her a greater sense of confidence as she heads off to art school. Laney, in return, gives Zack a much-needed dose of humility and perspective that will serve him well outside of his high-school bubble. As in Pretty In Pink, they’re a star-crossed couple who absolutely won’t last past a summer-before-college fling. But not all rom-com romances need to last forever to be sweet in the moment.
In the end, She’s All That explores the ’90s teen experience in much the same way the Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello Beach Party movies riffed on the 1960s one—not with actual verisimilitude, but with an exaggerated aesthetic that feels true to the time in a different kind of way. She’s All That is a glitter and butterfly clip time capsule of a moment that never really existed outside of the pop culture that made it feel like it did. And though the film has all the sustenance of a piece of bubblegum, it takes a rare blend of savvy intelligence and complete guilelessness to pull off that particular kind of sugar rush. He’s All That has some big ankle-strap heels to fill.
Next time: Ever After did the Cinderella story right.
128 Comments
nothing is sacred to you jackals
Maybe pedantic and more addressed to Mindy Kaling BUT that’s not what “science fiction” means. Like, by definition.Surrealism or even magical realism would be closer.
Look. Margaret Atwood has used sci-fi’s ambiguous generic boundaries to argue that her work is not science fiction for decades—even when specific pieces very obviously are. (I’m looking at you, Oryx and Crake. Your sequels can GTF out.)You can argue that the average pop culture consumer/creator has a piss-poor understanding of genre, or you can argue that generic boundaries are inherently fluid and ultimately meaningless. Just like high school cliques/identities, according to this review.Does any of it ultimately matter in the end?
While I very much agree that genres are loose and descriptive, rather than rigid and prescriptive, as terms they still convey some kinda meaning.I don’t think “another word would describe this better” is an unreasonable take.
I’m just here to say, I’ve always argued that genre should be informative and not definitive. So you’re very similar take speaks to me.
I wouldn’t have introduced that genre discussion into the piece to begin with, but at a certain point, yes, words have meaning? Palm Springs is a sci-fi romcom. She’s All That is not.
Sometimes I feel like an absolute dinosaur because I believe words have meaning. I try not to be uptight and too prescriptivist, but then I keep wanting it to end somewhere so words have meanings.
At some point, there are actual rules. Language has so much room for flexibility and interpretation and innovation, but there are still limits to that. Again, I can even see where she’s coming from! But, yeah.
Clearly. We wouldn’t be able to have this inane debate in the AV Club comments section otherwise.But going from “sci fi has fluid generic boundaries” to “words have no meaning” requires even more imagination than arguing that rom coms are a subgenre of sci fi.
Palm Springs is a sci-fi romcom. She’s All That is not.I tend to agree with Mindy Kaling’s assessment that romantic comedies are often best enjoyed as a subgenre of sci-fi, “in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world.”No one said it was?
Fluid isn’t the same as meaningless.
Well, yes. Genre can be fluid, certainly, but there are clear and unambiguous differences between what, say, Blade Runner is doing and what She’s All That is doing in terms of plot, theme, character, setting, style etc., that mean that attempting to seriously make the argument that the latter is as much a form of science fiction as the former is, at the very least, an uphill battle.
Always take it out on an existential note.
“the law of the law of genre… is precisely a
principle of contamination, a law of impurity, a parasitical economy… a sort of participation without belonging—a taking part in without
being part of”The simplest way to make sense of Kaling’s proposition is that ‘Sci-fi’ is a totally made-up word (so it can kindof skip around the whole ‘words have meaning’ accusation) that was coined because there are a lot of things that share some genre markers with ‘Science fiction’ but are not fictions of science (‘hard sci-fi’). So ‘Sci-fi’ exists to be a more general term, something with subgenres and within it and fuzzier boundaries.Can rom-coms overlap into this space without involving lasers or phasers or spacecraft or time travel? I think so. It’s definitely on the fuzzy borders, but the manner in which rom-coms, science fiction, and magical realism break in selective ways with the understanding of the world of reality while leaving much intact around is similar (and distinct from most surrealist work, which is typically not ‘in’ the characters’ world, but in the representation—splice cuts, visual effects, distancing or estrangement).As an argument, it is definitely a bit weak. It doesn’t do anything useful in defining sci-fi and it frankly also doesn’t do all that much in redefining the rom-com. From the article, I’m fairly certain that Kaling isn’t actually trying to define the traits of genre here, she’s really just trying to briefly displace a cultural stereotype by setting up a different point-of-view to help emphasize the artificiality when she returns to the rom-com genre itself.
Yeah, I got what Kaling was saying. She’s just saying that romcoms operate within their own logic and rules that aren’t like you would see in the real world, even though most of these films ostensibly take place in our world.The same way Neil DeGrasse Tysoning every sci fi movie is futile, it’s sort of the same with romcoms. How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days is every bit as bonkers and “unreal” as The Matrix and you kind of need to keep that in mind. Doesn’t mean romcoms shouldn’t be criticized when they break their own rules or tell an incoherent story or when the human characters act in a way completely unfamiliar with anyone who has spent time around real human beings in their life, but there’s definitely a heightened reality they take place in.
I just read ‘A Treasury of Great Science Fiction (vol 2)‘ from 1959 (fifty cents at a yard sale) and it has stuff like ‘The Lost Years’ which is alternative history and ‘The Magic City’ which is post-apocalyptic with no technology stuff. So it’s always been an expansive category.PS ‘The Stars My Destination’ (1956) by Alfred Bester is pretty good
All words are made-up words, too, at a base level, but they still have meaning.And I get the point of trying to demonstrate how rom-com film language/tropes are inherently “other”, but yeah, bringing that point in here just doesn’t do much at all to make the point, if that makes sense?I enjoyed your comment too, to be clear.
It might depend on how flexible / nitpicky we’re being. There’s an argument that certain subgenres like alternate history nevertheless fall under the “science fiction” banner despite not necessarily being based around technological / scientific hypothesising because it’s come to mean a certain form of speculative fiction, so if you were so inclined you could perhaps make a very, very tenuous argument that rom-coms fill a similar void. It probably wouldn’t work, but still. In practice, though Kaling’s almost certainly just using “sci-fi” as shorthand for “most of what happens in romantic comedies might as well take place on Mars for how much actual real-world human sense it makes, so you’d just got to apply a healthy dose of willing suspension of disbelief and run with it”, I doubt she genuinely thinks it’s an actual form of science fiction, so I’m pretty sure it’s academic anyway.
Sure, but that’s not how her argument is presented in this context. And I’m just using the definition of science fiction! It has a very real meaning! Yes, words have flexible meanings, and genres of art (music, film, etc) are absolutely not rigid. Most of my favorite shows, bands, and movies involve mixing and mashing of genres to the point that attempting to pin them down is pointless, which demonstrates how silly it is to try and label everything. That said, her point (and the way the article uses it) is just, well, not correct, ha. I’m all for noting that romantic comedies are inherently not realism! They have their own rules, much the same way, say, the horror genre does. And there are plenty of examples of films that play with and subvert tropes and traditions, while mixing in other genres. But I wouldn’t say “romantic comedies are basically horror movies”, for example, even though I think that even that might be more accurate. (Especially if you’re a woman on Tinder right now.)
I mean the word “fiction” does this in and of itself, there’s no reason to add the “sci” descriptor in there. I understand that “fiction” inherently means “not of this reality.”
Guys, it was a joke. It’s not that deep.
There is not a definition of science fiction (I like Spinrad one though) and as a fan (well, ex fan) of the genre I get the simile perfectly. Romcoms operate with similar narrative rules as fantasy or science fiction.
The dictionary would disagree with you there.
Ooh, now do punk!
My god it’s like she didn’t even listen to Laney’s dialogue! SURREAL. SHE SAID THE THING IN THE MOVIE!On a more serious note: I think Mindy Kaling can be given the benefit of the doubt, here. People name-drop “sci-fi” with hints of irony to obliquely suggest that we’re watching a bunch of space aliens pretending to be human. The overlap between that wry implication and the genres you listed is significant.
Fellow pedant here. Is there no room for exaggerated sarcasm in meta-commentary? Yes, She’s All That absolutely is not sci-fi, but I knew exactly what Kaling meant.
Also yes, magical realism would be closer. (I would discount surrealism due to Cook’s in-film meta-awareness — she’s surreal to other characters, but not to the audience.)
So the issue is that a comedy writer made an inelegant analogy during an interview?
Especially one known for employing hyperbole.
“Maybe”?Definitely.
Definitely pedantic.
I’ve never seen She’s All That, but I don’t really need to, because Not Another Teen Movie is hilarious.
It’s really the best of all those movies. After you see it the rest can’t be watched without mocking laughter.
Don’t worry about it. I’ve noticed more people praising it recently and I think it’s based in nostalgia. I didn’t like it when it came out and tried to a few years back when a friend put it on, it’s just not good. (And neither is Hocus Pocus)
(And neither is Hocus Pocus)If you didn’t see Hocus Pocus at a 9 year old’s sleepover you probably aren’t going to like it.
I’d have to figure out how old I was, but I think I was like 12-13 maybe a tad too old. However there are people my age that love it and I’m even gay so technically I guess I should. Or so I’ve been told.
The appeal of Hocus Pocus is that it gives kids a chance to make their parents feel awkward by asking what a virgin is when we already know.
“Who would have thought that everyone that goes to our school is a professional dancer”- that line makes any other movies prom dance scenes impossible to watch without laughing.
NATM unironically does that part of it better than She’s All That and it isn’t even close.I enjoy this column and it has made me re-examine some rom coms that I otherwise might not have given a second thought to. But I can’t agree with Caroline here, She’s All That was so damn bad at the time and it didn’t get any better with age. The love for this is 100% based on nostalgia and the fact that the cast was sort of accidentally loaded.Rachel Leigh Cook not being bigger sucks, though, because she deserved better career-wise.
Rachel Leigh Cook not being bigger sucks, though, because she deserved better career-wise.Cook was on Psych in like, season two? And while the show hardly did anything with her—which, y’know, as much as I love tended to give its female characters short shrift—whenever she showed up she like, lit up the screen. Hell, she made even that terrible Netflix-released Lifetime movie bearable. Somebody give her meatier roles, man. She can handle it!
My mother got into that on Disney+ recently, I saw her when she was watching it and was pleased to see Cook was in it, as I had the impression she was pretty much given scraps after Josie and the Pussycats.
But I can’t agree with Caroline here, She’s All That was so damn bad at the time and it didn’t get any better with age.Ugh, yes. I tried rewatching it not too long ago and was struck by how boring and sucky it was. I would’ve much rather been watching 10 Things I Hate About You.
Rachel Leigh-Cook needed bigger socks
It really does a great job. The beginning, when they kept calling Layne hideous because “ponytail and glasses!” and then the makeover scene when they remove said ponytail and glasses and Mia Kirshner’s character goes “I’m a genius”…Is just….really fun satire. It’s not breaking new grounds but it just shows the ridiculous of Rachel Leigh Cook being the ‘bet
“Ugh, she’s got paint on her overalls! What is that?”
Janey: Jake, you’ve taught me to be myself. You never saw me as the girl in glasses.Jake: Don’t forget the paint-covered overalls.Janey: Right, you never noticed those either.
As stupid as that was, that’s really how 90’s teens operated. I feel like nowadays you can be weird/nerdy and have paint on you, as the 21 Jump Street films highlight.
Looking closely at the picture in the header, those glasses are actually doing a lot of heavy lifting. There’s the obvious body positioning, facial expression and makeup that are geared toward making Rachel Leigh Cook ‘plain’, but the glasses are really the MVPs in that job. They’re not only the type you’d expect to see on a middle-aged secretary who’d given up on fashion, but they’re both slightly crooked and have what appear to be magnifying lenses. Unevenly magnifying, at that. All of that adds up to a considerable alteration in RLC’s apparent facial symmetry and proportions.
The “You have her eyes” scene never doesn’t make me laugh.
It’s got a smoking hot soundtrack too.
It feels sweaty to try to defend She’s All That in any way in a post-NATM world. NATM just nuked this poor bastard film from orbit. It wasn’t even a massacre. It was an erasure.
I’m no She’s All That fan, but I’ve never really understood the idea that because something is parodied, even effectively, its time is up. Mel Brooks didn’t exactly wipe Alfred Hitchcock off the map. Most parody is done somewhat affectionately.
Some satire is meant to destroy that which it mocks. I have no idea if NATM was one of those. I have seen neither film
I don’t think it was really, it was aimed at more or less the same audience for a start. It has some laughs, but at the end of the day it ultimately *was* just another teen movie.In recently years I’ve seen some people say they couldn’t get into Kill List (I think? It might have been A Field in England) because Hot Fuzz made fun of those Wicker Man tropes and that Austin Powers made Bond obsolete and I just can’t relate as those clearly seem like affectionate parodies to me.
I might agree if it wasn’t Caroline. She always makes a good case, even if I’m ultimately not convinced.
Also better than She’s All That: Latter Days, another rom com that revolves around a bet. Although in this case, the bet is that a slutty, gay himbo will be able to get a quiet, yet attractive Mormon missionary into bed with him. No, it’s not porn. And Amber Benson shows up for some reason.Seriously, everyone, watch this movie if you’re in the mood for a good rom com.
I’d almost tolerate this remake if they did it right and casted a guy who was actually ugly, fat and genuinely socially awkward but and at the end he “cleans up” into a still “undatable” young man who has more self respect and worth. It’s what they should’ve done with the original
M. Night Shyamalan was a writer on this script? Well, that explains a lot.I mean, who else could have come up with such an out-of-nowhere, surprise-twist ending where Rachel Leigh Cook ends up being, like, really hot?
I like this movie. Its not very good, but I still like it.
I can’t believe this is the hill I’ve decided to die on but: He’s All That is just Drive Me Crazy erasure.
I’ll die on that hill with you.
I shall join you proudly.
Aquaman?
I remember when I saw Drive Me Crazy for the first time I knew Vincent “Vinny” Chase would become the biggest and best actor, and eventually actorwriterdirector, of our time, and never set a foot wrong, except for one time, which he would recover from immediately and seamlessly. I just knew it.
I still, no joke, want to see James Cameron’s Aquaman.
Possibly, but She’s All That doesn’t end with a lead into Step-sibling porn so…
…well clearly I need to revisit Drive Me Crazy for the first time in twenty years.
It’s literally the last scene of the movie, driven home by them playing Little Willy Willy won’t go home cuz you can’t make Willy cum Willy won’t go, if that particular corner of my trauma filled mind remembers it correctly.
I just don’t get why Britney yells stop in the song.
Young Patrick Dempsey would like a word…
This doesn’t work as well when there’s more than one asshole dying on the hill.
I’m from the Midwest, and this is one of a few movies that made me obsessed with SoCal. Summer School, Fast Times were a couple others. They walk outside between classes? They just go to the beach whenever they feel like it? Everyone has a pool?Definitely planted a seed. So I moved to LA and lived there for 15 years. And it was awesome.
We must put an end to the scourge of movies convincing people to move here.
Doesn’t cost of living eventually achieve that with most people?
Both my middle school and high school aped the “California style” of school architecture—tons of open-air walkways between multiple buildings—and let me tell you it makes far less sense in the Pacific Northwest, where it’s 50 degrees and rainy half the year.
My school did the same, but enclosed the corridors on either side of the courtyard we were never allowed to use. It made even less sense than the PNW since it was Syracuse, NY. Also at least once a year it seemed they had to plywood over one of the glass panes when people would be goofing off, rough housing or occasional fights would crack or break one of those massive windows.
Similarly, this made no sense at the Northern NJ high school I attended where none of the walkways were enclosed despite the rain, snow, and cold. Supposedly, because the school was located on wetlands (and, hence, cheap land), it couldn’t support the weight of a single building.
I’m from the northeast and it was high schools in Arizona that gave me that reaction. Lunch tables outside, along with all their lockers?
Just One of the Guys and Can’t Buy Me Love stand out in my memory. Also, later, the flashback scenes in Romy & Michele.
Ha! I had the reverse experience as a 1980s high school student in Miami watching John Hughes movies:“They wear like seven layers of clothes, and like, berets and scarves and shit, to school? Preppy is a thing? Schools look like that? People really care that much about where you live? And why the fuck is everyone white?”I never moved to the Midwest. And it was awesome.
Two words: Milwaukee
I always felt that some of the 1999 teen movies all exist in some quasi-Dawson’s Creek universe:She’s All That – Rachel Leigh Cook
Cruel Intentions – Joshua Jackson
Varsity Blues – James Van Der BeekGo – Katie HolmesGranted RLC was only in a few episodes, but it just about fits.
Go – Katie Holmes1. Go wasn’t a teen movie2. This is Teaching Mrs. Tingle erasure3. #2 would almost be Disturbing Behaviour erasure, but that was 1998
Go was a bit of a stretch, but I went for it anyway.
If only Halloween H20 and Final Destination had come out in ‘99, then I’d be on safer ground.
Everything is erasure in this comment section today
This is definitely a more favorable form of Erasure
And it’s about time
I feel like Teaching Miss Tingle pretty much erased itself
Yeah I remember it sucking but can’t recall why, nor do I care.
I always get Teaching Mrs. Tingle confused with the alien invasion teacher movie with Jon Stewart. If I remember correctly, there are a bunch of 90s stars in that, too. ETA – The Faculty! With Josh Hartnett, Clea Duvall, Usher, Elijah Wood, and Jordana Brewster.
Ah, The Faculty. Also starting Laura Harris, one of the Forgotten Aughts Blondes, alongside Amy Smart and my beloved Marley Shelton.
I think knew RLC popped up on Dawson’s creek
Shyamalan has had some successful scripts, but he seems like one of the last people who should be polishing anyone’s dialogue.
Hey, we can’t all be George Lucas-level masters of dialogue.
Shout out to the random out of nowhere Sarah Michelle Gellar silent cameo, and before Freddie and she were together even! I guess because it was the same school used for Sunnydale High?
As a single, high school male I was not really the demo for this movie, but I found it eminently watchable all the same. This was towards the end of the period of my life where I believed all these parties and things actually happened, I just wasn’t invited. The movie worked.I saw it with my mom and my sister and afterwards, my mom’s biggest hangup with the movie was that RLC was too attractive to be believable in that role. My mom’s theory is that she would have garnered a decent amount of attention from guys that really makes the audience have to suspend disbelief that she only had the one Ducky friend. I mean, the whole movie is pretty surreal, but that was my mom’s lone hangup.Also, FWIW, Not Another Teen Movie is a legit funny movie. I know it gets lumped in with all those other shitty parodies that were pumped out around the same time, but it is leagues better than them. I love the MCU and it took me 10 years of watching that to think of Chris Evans as Captain America and not the guy from NATM.
The best is Clueless, which reignited the genre after it went into hibernation following John Hughes’ domination in the 1980s. Yeah, [CITATION NEEDED] there. It’s good, but I’d definitely take She’s All That and (especially) 10 Things I Hate About You over Clueless.I also think the other two films have aged better than Clueless. But really, She’s All That I agree is the ur-text in “90s teen rom-coms.” It also helps that the casts for both She’s All That and 10 Things I Hate About You (and even Clueless) had just so many young start right at the peak of them becoming bigger stars.
I’d put 10 Things I Hate About you on my “favorite teen comedy” by a mile. Clueless would be second, if not counting ‘Not Another Teen Movie’(which might tie with 10 Things). The thing about 10 Thing is…all the main actors can act…Like Julia Styles and Heath Ledger are people you are like “oh, they’re good”…I don’t think anyone ever said that about Freddy Prince(until he started voice acting for Star Wars)
Clueless only loses points because she dates her stepbrother, spawning many a porn 20 years later
I’d put 10 Things I Hate About you on my “favorite teen comedy” by a mile. Clueless would be second, if not counting ‘Not Another Teen Movie’(which might tie with 10 Things). The thing about 10 Thing is…all the main actors can act…Like Julia Styles and Heath Ledger are people you are like “oh, they’re good”…
Hard to believe Paul Rudd was 50 in Clueless.
Hmm, no, 100% wrong. Clueless is a masterpiece, and by virtue of being actually, you know, funny, holds up far better than either She’s All That or 10 Things.
Or actually, you know, aggravating.10 Things makes me laugh without making me want to jump in a lake.
Where do we think Can’t Hardly Wait falls in this lineup?
I loved Can’t Hardly Wait. If nothing else, it’s got a great soundtrack.
[CITATION NEEDED]? Me. The citation is me! Clueless is the best. If I disagree with Caroline anywhere it’s that I also think it is, the smartest, the weirdest, and the most 90s of the bunch as well. That’s how it becomes the best. The other movies get nothing. (Well, American Pie can keep raunchiest, but still.)
Yeah, that’s crazy talk. Clueless is fantastic and still funny today.
Excellent piece, Caroline. Your comparison to the exaggerated aesthetic of the Beach movies is spot on. Those movies were of my parents’ generation, and I always thought they were supposed to be some earnest portrayal of the bubble-gummy 60s teen. I watched Beach Party recently, and MAN was I way off. It’s SO weirdly subversive, but at the same time also earnest and genuinely fun … very much like this movie.
Check out Back to the Beach! It’s a savage send-up of the Frankie & Annette movies that’s a lot of fun.
I am excited for Ever After. One of my 90s favorites. It is just perfect! I also think it pairs well with The Mask of Zorro or Gwyneth Paltrows Emma.
While I side with those who argue Not Another Teen Movie did She’s All That but better and could have done with more analysis or thought than just the two nods to that version—Get Over It also seemed to handle a lot of the same points this article raised and I remember it being a lot more interesting despite no one else seeming to remember it at all. Weirdly recognizable cast even now (Kirsten Dunst and Ben Foster as the leads), shoehorned musician cameo (Sisqo and Vitamin C for some reason), musical interludes, and it ties into the loose remake or homages towards public domain work even though I don’t remember its Midsummer play within the movie also being reflected in their personal lives. Particularly though I remember some of the flashy direction. The opening is a slow build oner that eventually becomes a choreographed musical number, and there’s a scene in a crowded club where they gradually zoom in on the lead’s face during some sort of dawning revelation and then rapidly pull back to reveal an empty floor to suck the audience into the narrative of someone’s head.
haven’t seen get over it in probably 15 years but i remember that being underrated and surprisingly solid.
I remember Get Over It. And The New Guy. In theaters.
I remember Get Over It.
As it’s based on the only funny Shakespeare play, that made it doubly worth watching.
I didn’t much care for Get Over It, but for some reason it stuck in the nooks and crannies of my brain to the point that I frequently say some variation of “they need to make like Ben Foster and Get Over It” or “I wish they would just Get Over It starring Kristen Dunst.” I’m really happy Ben Foster has had a bit of a career resurgence now that he looks like a grizzled dude instead of a goofy kid. I liked him ever since the kids show Flash Forward where he and Jewel Staite navigated a childhood friendship complicated by burgeoning teen-dom.And while we are on the subject of millenium teen rom-coms featuring Shane West, does anyone remember Whatever It Takes? That one suuuuucked. Hilariously, Shane West plays a former boy band heartthrob in Get Over It, but in Whatever It Takes he’s supposed to be the geeky guy who can’t get the hot girl so James Franco has to help him. Although Whatever It Takes did have the adorable Marla Sokoloff going for it, I wish she was in more stuff.
Great write-up as always, Caroline! And completely error-free. You make it look easy.
Spot on, as always, the BEST teen romcom of the 90s (I fuckin said it) that also spawned the primary plot for the best parody of the late 90s/ early aughts (squeezing past Scary Movie 2).
I mean, Not Another Teen Movie did replace She’s All That and rendered all future movies with that trope unnecessary Also completely random tangent on NATM- We all know Captain America is in the film, but so is Norbert Beaver. He’s the guy who announces he jerked off in the French Toast in the Prom song. Now you know.
Norbert is the co-creator of Paul Blart.
I watched this for the first time the other day in anticipation of this column, and I was floored by the sheer number of recognizable actors in it (even down to character actors like the guy who later played Foggy on the Netflix Daredevil show).It’s interesting that this is a Pygmalion riff, because at the end of the day Zach doesn’t really do much coaching, other than arranging a makeover that is wholly outsourced to his sister.Also, “Kiss Me” is such a great song.
“She’s got GLASSES! And a PONYTAIL!!!”An older member of my family rented it for a movie night with her husband and said “oh, she’s just like you! Spitting image!” Meaning, I was also an artist, and darn it if I just wore my hair down and got contacts, I TOO could be the Pretty Girl. I was never more insulted. Cuz I was happy with my dork-ass self and didn’t WANT to be The Pretty Girl. It was a waste of my time better spent doing anything other than wear makeup and chase boys. (Tbf- None of us knew I was gay yet.) The best thing to come out of this dreck was “Not Another Teen Movie.”
“split like the red sea” is a wonderful dance instruction
Surprised that nobody here (above or below the line) has mentioned the Sarah Michelle Gellar cameo in the cafeteria scene – the school scenes were shot using the same school as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and she just happened to be around that day.
and even (via a brief, silent appearance) Milo VentimigliaInspired to watch this near-unwatchable last night, I was pleasantly surprised to spy a dialogueless mid-Buffy (season 3-ish?) Sarah Michelle Gellar in the cafeteria during the nonsensical pepper’n’pubes Culkin scene.Anyhoo, Cook and Prinze have strange, interesting chemistry despite an utter lack of talent beyond their drop-dead beautiful faces. Josie and the Pussycats deserves a rewatch now, too — Cook + Parker Posey + Alan Cumming + Rosario Dawson = <3 <3 <3 <3
I remember wondering what Anna Paquin was doing in that movie. She just seemed to float in and wander around every so often without any actual connection to the plot.
This article is a lot more forgiving than I thought it would be. I felt the movie was cringey back then, and rewatching it, I think the cringe holds up. (Freddie Prinze is worse than I remember, actually.) But the likeability of Rachel Leigh Cook is everything. This is her movie, the film is better when she’s on screen, and if not for the finale, I wouldn’t say there’s much here at all.
If I can give She’s All That credit for one thing it has over it’s peers, I think the build to the climax, and how all that plays out is stronger than most other teen movies of the time (save for Bring It On). They do a good job getting me to worry just enough about that hotel situation, and it is immensely satisfying to hear Laney could take care of herself, without Zach needing to rush in and save her.
In both pictures she looks as if she’s about 1/2 a second from committing murder. Or is she? I never saw this.