TikToker Addison Rae promotes some brands in Netflix’s atrocious remake He’s All That
This gender-flipped She’s All That is far from all that
Film Reviews Addison Rae
Pizza Hut, Ilia Beauty, Old Navy, CORE Hydration water, Lucky Charms, Eos skincare, and Alo Yoga’s Head-to-Toe Glow Oil. That’s just a partial list of the brands prominently showcased, recommended, or literally hashtagged on screen in Netflix’s new romantic comedy He’s All That. And while product placement is certainly nothing new for Hollywood, the question here is how a movie with so much of it still manages to look like it was made on a student film budget with Rebecca Black’s “Friday” music video as its primary aesthetic inspiration. Perhaps all that product placement money went to paying Kourtney Kardashian for a painfully wooden cameo as a cutthroat beauty business owner trying to source brand deals for her own fictional line of products. Or maybe that’s just the kind of cash you need to get TikTok’s third most-followed individual to make her acting debut in your high school rom-com.
There’s plenty of time to ponder those questions during a teen flick so sleepy it could have benefited from a branded coffee deal. The gimmick of He’s All That is that it’s a gender-flipped remake of the fan favorite ’90s rom-com She’s All That, in which Freddie Prinze Jr.’s popular jock makes a bet that he can turn any girl into prom queen, even an artsy loner played by Rachael Leigh Cook (who pops up as a different character here). In practice, however, He’s All That is really more of a TikTok-era riff on the themes of director Mark Waters’ 2004 teen hit Mean Girls—right down to a climatic prom court speech about the importance of not taking high school popularity too seriously. Padgett Sawyer (real-life TikToker Addison Rae) is a teen queen who hides her less-than-glamorous real life behind a perfectly manicured, incredibly popular social media feed. Her brand is self-empowerment by way of makeovers, in which she sells herself as a picture-perfect voice of wisdom, like Cosmo magazine brought to life. But when she accidentally livestreams her brutal break-up with her cheating boyfriend, she becomes a meme-able laughing stock and risks losing the sponsorship that’s supposed to pay for her college.
To its credit, He’s All That actually comes up with a much better reason than the original as to why a popular teen might decide to give a loner rebel a makeover. In this case, Padgett needs a high-profile stunt that can save her brand and help her keep her livelihood. Yet the movie goes ahead and delivers an actual lunchroom bet with a classmate as well, which makes even less sense in this context, when Padgett has much more on the line. Regardless, she’s soon been challenged to fix up arrogant, antisocial Cameron Kweller (Cobra Kai’s Tanner Buchanan), whose interests include photography, horseback riding, grunge fashion, Kurosawa films, singing in the glee club, ranting against modern technology, and raving about the lattes at LA’s Union Station. (You know, that type of guy.) Of course, as Padgett turns Cameron from drab to fab, she also learns some valuable lessons about what truly matters in life. Like gaining followers for the right reasons.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of a teen rom-com centered on social media popularity and influencer culture—even one that doesn’t necessarily see those things as evil. But He’s All That offers nothing beyond buzzwords, empty platitudes, and sponcon. While the original She’s All That is hardly a masterpiece of teen rom-com filmmaking, it has a goofy guilelessness that helps it go down easy. He’s All That, by comparison, is painfully strained, with flatly overexposed cinematography, choppy editing, and stiff performances. Though Rae has the presence of someone who knows how to be affable on camera, she’s incapable of the sort of emotional vulnerability that’s needed to anchor a romantic comedy. And since Buchanan is only marginally more skilled in that area, the two make for a disastrously inert couple.
He’s All That tries to let its young stars show off some of their other talents by awkwardly shoehorning in karaoke sequences, fight scenes, and dance breaks, which only adds to the overall sense of desperation. As does the way the film keeps cutting to random laughing reaction shots as if that will somehow disguise the fact that none of its comedy actually lands. To be fair, by the time a teen leaves a party by asking her host “Can I get some KFC to go?” and then grabbing an entire bucket of chicken, you have to wonder if He’s All That is at least somewhat in on the product placement joke, à la the cult classic Cook vehicle Josie And The Pussycats. But while there are glimmers of self-awareness to its silliest moments (like a viral pop star who’s perpetually taking off his shirt), He’s All That is ultimately too enamored with the power of social media marketing to truly bite the hand that feeds it. This is a movie that can only conceive of teenage authenticity as switching your brand from beauty tutorials to travel vlogging. #Relatable this is not.
134 Comments
This seems like an F to me. We no give F anymore?
Look around you. No one gives an F anymore…..
F grades are reserved for the true fiascos, something that is so wildly miscalculated and offensive that there might be perverse interest in watching it. A D grade is for bad, boring, and unwatchable dreck, like an uninspired remake of a somewhat popular 20 year old romcom. It’s letting you know not to waste your time, it’s not “so bad, it’s good,” just plain bad. (And AV Club gave an F to the American Horror Story anthology finale on Hulu just last week, so they do exist.)
yeah this reads like it’s just a baseline, generic, boring, bland experience, but still competently made.F’s are just wildly incompetent, usually even conceptually.
Right. If you just toss out F’s to any old bad sequel, then it ruins the magnificence of coming across a true F, like the Glee school shooting episode.
i have a theory that instead of a top to bottom, good to bad scale like we normally use it’s more like a circle.so an A is on top, the cream of the crop, and as you move around the circle you get to a D directly below the A, that’s the just really boring, bland kind of bad. then as things get worse they circle back around, so the best stuff and the worst stuff are actually just as good.
I think of it more as a bell curve.
I miss classic Av Club pans so much.
Great. Now you’re having me look up old reviews of Glee just so I can revel in the horribleness of an “F” grade. For the record, I think I’ve only watched about five episodes of Glee ever, so essentially just enough to know the cast and what was going on. Thank you, ex-GF in DC. (We did watch the last season of Lost together, and like 90% of everyone were just as pissed with the finale…so we will always have that.)
Yeah, I think the philosophy is that F stands for (Perversely) Fascinating.
A = Absolutely Watch This Now
B = Be Sure to Watch This Sometime
C = Could Watch This or Skip It
D = Don’t Ever Watch This
F = Fuck it, I Dare You to Watch This
I think American Horror Story got one just the past week.
If Stephen Seagal is starring in it, then yes.
F is for movies that fail to be movies. F movies take big swings. This one bunted.
Gender-swapped She’s All That was Drive Me Crazy.Should have tried a nonbinary take this time: Addison can play Tanner and Cameron can play Padgett.
Yeah, how many teen remakes of Pygmalion do we need?
Naturally we must keep watching rehashes of “Pygmalion” until we get one starring actual pigs.
What about gender-swapped Lysistrata?
It would be the shortest telling of the story imaginable.
Is the pig from Pig doing anything?
Pig and a lion, dude. Pig and lion. Such an unlikely couple.Not an unlikely pairing, but an unlikely couple.
Or how about a furry version where Stacee the Sassy Squirrel helps Andruu the Agoraphobic Antelope go from drab to fab by getting his costume dry-cleaned, giving Andruu the confidence to realize his ultimate dream of being the school mascot of Wendy’s Presents Furry High School.
See I was going to go with “Can’t Buy Me Love” from the 80’s.
A lot of people seem to have forgotten that She’s All That was already a gender-flipped remake of Can’t Buy Me Love, making this a gender-flipped remake of a gender-flipped remake, and this is what society has come to.
Ooh, They’re All That. Theydies and gentlethem, start your engines.
How about a Fight Club version where she plays both Tanner and Padgett and then blows herself up at the end?
Two tickets please.
It works with those very gender-neutral names, as well.
“So gender-neutral we’re not actually sure if those’re actual nouns!”
Drive Me Crazy is the better movie, too. Adrian Grenier isn’t a loan weirdo; he’s one of a group of outcasts which gives the commentary on high school social hierarchy a little more depth.
Regardless, she’s soon been challenged to fix up arrogant, antisocial Cameron Kweller (Cobra Kai’s
Tanner Buchanan), whose interests include photography, horseback
riding, grunge fashion, Kurosawa films, singing in the glee club,
ranting against modern technology, and raving about the lattes at LA’s
Union Station.. . . what.
look to your left and to your right.
If neither has interests that include photography, horseback riding, grunge fashion, Kurosawa films, singing in the glee club, ranting against modern technology, and raving about the lattes at LA’s Union Station, then you have interests that include photography, horseback riding, grunge fashion, Kurosawa films, singing in the glee club, ranting against modern technology, and raving about the lattes at LA’s Union Station.
It’s such an absurd assemblage of interests that it sounds like they were trying to create the most insufferable uber-hipster possible without understanding what any of these things even are.
I feel like they missed the opportunity for him to be into something organic.
The movie would be a 2 hour monologue if he were.
And if the monologue was delivered by Christoph Waltz, it would be worth watching.
Judging by this review, he wouldn’t have gotten into anything organic even if he’d gotten laid.
He’s really been getting into sourdough during COVID.
It’s like they used all the random selections from a character creator lol
Don’t worry. He learns to love brands too.
Hmm, it’s almost like they were trying to make me their target audience but didn’t realise I’m actually into filmmaking, dressage, stoner fashion, Kubrick films, acting in the glee club, ranting about the decline of old technology (eg. VHS), and raving about the moccas at my local bus station’s Starbucks.
They ran into the stumbling block that nothing is explicitly uncool any more, except maybe sincere political engagement (and you can’t include that anyway, it’ll spook the sponsors).
Bitches born in the 2000’s don’t know how to cook, all they know is photography, horseback riding, grunge fashion, Kurosawa films, singing
in the glee club, ranting against modern technology, rave about
the lattes at LA’s Union Station, eat hot chip, and lie
Mac & Me: A Romance Story?
Great, now I’m mad that Selfie got cancelled all over again.
I discovered that Selfie is not streaming anywhere anymore and was low-key devestated.
Not even Hulu?! Fuckssake, that’s disappointing.
Not even Hulu. And I couldn’t find a DVD set. It’s some real bullshit.
Happens to far too many shows of the 2000s.
Someone just pointed out to me that Trial & Error isn’t streaming anywhere either, and that just aired like 2 years ago. I don’t know what the deal is, these shows came out post-streaming so SOMEONE must have the rights, whether its on Paramount, Peacock, HBO Max, Hulu, whatever. I need to start finding torrents of those and a couple other series, I will be super bummed if The Mick isn’t on Hulu when I want to re-watch it.
#RIPSelfieI know their respective careers went into the stratosphere after the show ended—Gillan’s, especially—but I would give *anything* for a reunion movie. That final line haunts me.
Seriously, especially now that they have money can’t they just fund it themselves??
Dammit, me too. That show was too good.
For some reason I always link it with Apt. 23 as shows axed far too soon by ABC.
Every detail of this film seems irredeemably terrible. Although I usually like reading Caroline Siede’s analysis of romantic comedies, methinks there is only one AVclub writer capable of giving the type of scathing review this movie likely deserves.
Allow me to fire up the Ignatiy Vishnevetsky beacon.
It’s like the movie was made with the purposeful intetion of being Ignatiy-bait.
He did great work with “Endings, Beginnings”, which was just as terrible (though at least it had Sebastian Stan to look at).
I’d rather watch a version with LGBTQ leads or people of color. Make it interesting and diverse. To see all these bland white people in the remake just sucks. I guess they’re going for that old 90s nostalgia, with token POC and gay best friends?
Shut up
You’re that eager for more proof that queer/brown people can be slotted into utterly uninspired drek just as easily as whiteymcstraights? Trust me, hang on to the delusion that they’re inherently more interesting as long as you can. Don’t poke the bear.
Well, if anything, putting them as leads will give the Anti-PC Police something to bitch about. Otherwise, however would they live their lives?“I don’t care if I haven’t thought about this movie in 20 years! Fictional characters have had their race/sexuality changed and that’s just plain wrong!”
This film actually has a token POC queer couple, so that’s something, is it not?No, I guess it’s not.
That sounds even worse. Like a Bank of America pretending they’re super into equality every pride month.
CASTAddison Rae, Tanner Buchanan, Madison Pettis, Isabella Crovetti, Myra Molloy, Peyton MeyerDid you really think you could make up a bunch of names and no one would notice?
Needs more Breighleigh and Breighdinnn.
With an all-star supporting cast: Sleve McDichael, Todd Bonzalez, Jeromy Gride, and Bobson Dugnutt!
Those are some Tim & Eric level names, especially Bobson Dugnutt. Top Quallity!
I wish I could give you far more than one star for this
With David Duke as “Gramps.”
Bobson Dugnutt was great alongside Haleighah Casmichelin in “Eternity Yours”.
Sady, Bobson Dungutt did die when Doug Benson’s bobsled slid directly down into Dungnutt’s dang nuts.
I’m almost certain at least 2 of those are pornstars.
Eh, not yet. Give ‘em a few more dismal Netflix failures.
Tanner Buchanan sounds like the spoiled heir of a 19th century oil magnate. That, or an ’80’s movie bully who is the leader of the fabulously rich kids at camp, who the scrappy underdogs have to defeat in a canoe race or some contest or other in the heartwarming conclusion.
That’s Tanner Buchanan the Third, old chap.(and I immediately thought of the Mr. Show sketch vs. the rich kids camp.).
I just remembered that Daisy from The Great Gatsby’s last name was Buchanan. Therefore, it would be more fitting to write “That’s Tanner Buchanan the THIRD, old sport!”.
His inheritance claim to the Buchanan Petroleum empire is threatened when Isabella Crovetti, a glamourous young Italian woman, flies in from Milan claiming to Buchanan Senior’s long-last bastard daughter from a fling he had on the Amalfi Coast back in 1968….but is she telling the truth?It’s up to spunky female private detective Addison Rae to find out…but it’s case that may draw her in far, far deeper than she had ever wanted to go…
Thanks for ruining the ending of my spec script “The Underdog Good Time Bunch Go To Camp”, asshole.
Sounds about white.
That short earns its classic status, but I think Joel and the bots mercilessly mocking the kid’s horn solo is my favorite part.
Joel rarely ever lost his temper, so when he did it was hysterical. “ENOUGH! WHAT IS THIS, FLIGHT OF THE BUBBLEHEAD?! COME ON! STOP!”I also love Crow’s “And the old clock on the wall says that it’s…’That’s all!’, from the Stridex Medicated Band Hour…”
c’mon, it’s 2021. i’m sure there’s a brown token in there somewhere.
If you mean a white cast member whose name is actually “Brown Token”, then judging from the cast list there probably is.
It’s such a crazy list of names and yet there’s an Addison and a Madison.
They need both a Krystal-Leigh and a Krysta-Leigh!
Isabella Covfefe is definitely an up-and-comer. That orange president guy was Tweeting about her way back in 2017!
If you told me this was the cast of The Bold & The Beautiful I would not argue with you. These are some soap-opera names.
+1I was just coming to the comment section to wonder aloud: Should I know who Addison Rae is—or can I continue to keep my Rae knowledge contained to Charlotte and Issa?
What da fuh is a Tanner Buchanan? Reminds me of my question back when the TRON sequel came out: WTF is a Garrett Hedlund??As someone else commented, these are clearly all porn names.
‘whose interests include photography, horseback riding, grunge fashion, Kurosawa films, singing in the glee club, ranting against modern technology, and raving about the lattes at LA’s Union Station’
so he’s a 45 year old ‘creatives’ tinder profile made flesh?
Well who do you think wrote his character?
Bingo!
You lost me at TikToker
Oh, look, we took a super-attractive actor, ruffled their hair, dressed them in casual, unfashionable clothing, and presto! They’re a social outcast!JFC, the laziness of this is just astounding.
I’ll wait for the sequel, We’s All That.
Or the prequel, She’s None That.
It’s like, how much more all that could she be? And the answer is none. None more all that.
None that, left all.
He Hate MeWait, that was an actual player from the first XFL.
Or the remake of the prequel, It’s Some Things.
They’s All That, you mean
That’s the Tyler Perry ripoff.
Thank you everyone for putting the All That theme song in my head.
“I’m Lori Beth Denberg..”
THAT’S her name! I couldn’t remember it! Ah, “All That”. It had such memorable cast members. Keenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell (even his last name says “hey, is that a Good Burger”?), Amanda Bynes, Lori Beth Denberg,…..um….that guy….and that girl…and…oh, DEFINITELY that….person…
Do kids today even say “All that?” The title should have been “He’s Poggers” or something.
The hip and with-it sequel title would be And a Bag of Chips.
He’s Most of That
While the original She’s All That is hardly a masterpiece of teen rom-com filmmaking…
With the utmost respect, I disagree most sincerely.
av club thinks the problem with this movie is the product placement. Ok.
Addison, Madison, Tanner, Peyton … America’s War on First Names continues apace.
Padgett?
This seems simultaneously overcooked and undercooked. Trying very hard and not trying at all.
Or maybe that’s just the kind of cash you need to get TikTok’s third most-followed individual to make her acting debut in your high school rom-com.Hey, remember last year when Trump got a bug up his ass about TikTok and threatened to ban it? I’m starting to think he maybe had a point on that one.
Howmuch is Matthew Lilliard in this? Do I have to fast forward just for him?
When Matthew Lillard and Rachael Leigh Cook are the biggest stars, any grade above a ‘D’ is probably aspirational.
Matthew Lillard is a good actor. He’s been in some obviously uninspiring stuff like the Scooby-Doo films, but he’s also been in “SLC Punk” and “Twin Peaks: The Return” and “Good Girls” which are decent to great. As well as “Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated” which was a surprisingly good show. And he was in the original “She’s All That” so I guess they brought him in for nostalgia along with Rachael Leigh Cook.
The original basically skates by on how likeable its two leads are. Without that likeability, what’s the point?
The hacky sack performance art was inspired! 😀
– The DNC, describing their 2020 presidential ticket
I’m no brain genius but a cursory glance tells me those two candidates won 11 million more votes. Seems likable.
Honestly the one scene I remember is the part where Kevin Pollak as the dad is watching Jeopardy and saying dumb shit to the TV.
Fuck it, can we have a whole movie of that?
As bad as it is, this has to be a big step up in Addison Rae’s career compared to that time she went on the Tonight Show and awkwardly shook her boobs next to Jimmy Fallon while he held cue cards.
Mark Waters needs to be stopped. Now, I’m not saying killed, but I’m not not, either.
Did they shoot this in Australia? Are those spotted gums and a banksia in the background?
“TikToker” makes me want to end myself
Reading this, all I could think of is Not Another Teen Movie, when Jake’s friends pick Janie, and Jake is sure he’s lost the bet because she has “a pony tail! And glasses! And overalls!”.
That guy has Jackson Rathbone face, and that I cannot forgive.
Okay, I almost do not want to admit this, but this film was a crazy easy and fast watch, and while it is nothing to write home about, I think at worst it deserved a C or C+. It was not a complete swing and a miss which I think should be reserved for films/shows that had the potential to get a B or an A rating but turned out to be such a blatant miss that the show/film earns its D rating.
Also, I did not realize that was Matthew Lillard as the Principal, and I thought the running bit with his commentary over the school PA system was cute.
Can i get tiktok servcie from bestsocialplan.com?Its work for any tiktoker?