There’s no way
you could have survived the 90s without seeing She’s All That. The movie
is, in its own right, the classic teen movie of the 90s. After She’s All
That, every other teen movie tried to be just like it, but they never quite got
there—not even 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) with Julia Stiles
and the late Heath Ledger wished it could be this good.
So, what
does She’s All That boast of?
A charming cast.
The cast of the movie is what made it the hit it was in the 90s. The reality,
though, is that the movie’s high level of predictability takes away some of the
fun of surprise.
She’s All That is
about prom. The most popular boy in school, Zach (Freddie Prinze Jr.), and the
most popular girl, Taylor (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe), are sure to come out as prom king
and queen this year—if everything goes as planned. To top it off, they’re
dating.
The movie kicks
off with a shake-up: Taylor dumps Zach for a reality TV star, and Zach makes a
bet with his friend that he can take any girl in school and turn her into the
prom queen, defeating Taylor.
The girl
selected for his experiment is Laney (Rachael Leigh Cook). The bet goes well at
first, but things get complicated when Zach falls for Laney and finds it harder
to keep lying to her.
Enough about the
plot—the cast, for me, carried the movie and took it to the next level. This is
where I was introduced to future stars like Freddie Prinze Jr., Dulé Hill, the
late Paul Walker, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Gabrielle Union.
The directing,
though, can be criticized for being too plain, simple, and predictable to the
core. That said, if the director or writers had changed the way the movie went,
I wonder if it would still have come out as the 90s classic it is today.
Spoiler Alert
The first time I watched it, I thought Laney would win prom queen, but the
writers decided to throw a monkey wrench into the works by adding a twist right
at the end.
In the end, I
really enjoyed revisiting this movie—it’s a feel-good film to the bone.
Keep an eye out
for Takbir Bashir, an underground rapper from Styles of Beyond, rapping a She’s
All That song in the middle of the movie. Also, look out for Sarah
Michelle Gellar, who plays a girl in the cafeteria whom Laney’s brother, Simon
(Kieran Culkin), offers pepper to.
I’ll definitely be keeping a copy of this movie in my archive.
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