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She's All That
**1/2
Cinema
Releases - May 21, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by Robert Iscove. Written by R. Lee Fleming Jr. Starring
Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard, Paul Walker, Jodi
Lyn O'Keefe, Kevin Pollak, Anna Paquin, Kieran Culkin.
Reflecting on "She's All That" has
been strange -- at times, I remember it with affection, and at other times,
with animosity. It has surprisingly touching moments and almost repulsive
moments, a drearily formulaic plot and beautifully slick production
values.
As written by R. Lee Fleming Jr. and directed
by Robert Iscove, the film is an unoriginal high-school comedy in which the
most popular guy in school makes a bet over the affections of an ugly duckling.
He does, of course, discover she's not so ugly after all, as well as -- surprise!
-- falling in love with her.
The guy is Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a
WASP with great grades and athletic prowess, as well as a gorgeous girlfriend
(Jodi Lyn O'Keefe), who happens to dump him at the beginning of the movie,
for an obnoxious "Real World" star. (For the unaware, "The Real World" is
an MTV documentary program in which seven complete morons from a particular
city are videotaped while living in the same house together.)
Zack's dumping is what sparks off the idea for
the bet. Since he and his ex seemed destined to be prom king and queen, he's
now left with egg on his face, and so declares himself able to turn any girl
into the prom queen. Setting Zack a real challenge to prove this, his friends
select the geeky Laney Boggs (Rachel Leigh Cook) to be his
project.
Laney didn't seem very geeky to me -- although
the film's early scenes give her an ugly job in a kebab shop, thick glasses,
hidden hair and not much to say -- it's all so obviously a disguise. In the
obligatory scene where her glasses get taken off, and we're supposed to gasp
at how different she looks, she looks just the same. Beautiful, but the same,
and by the end of the movie, the only changes that have been made to her
appearance are a tighter dress and a little more makeup.
But "She's All That" places a lot of value on
such trivial, superficial things, and that makes me angry. This is a movie
aimed at insecure and immature pre-teens, but gives these impressionable
youths hideous role-models and messages. Hero Zack is a vain California jock
who doesn't appreciate his privileged upbringing and doesn't genuinely learn
anything in the course of the movie. Heroine Laney begins as a pretentious,
moody, anti-social prude, and the film seems to deem this as harmless
individuality. She ends up on the road to the shallow conformity of everyone
around her, and the film deems this as cute.
I also hated some of the tacky, obvious humour
the film goes for when it's really desperate. "She's All That" often seems
like the lousy sitcom "Saved By The Bell", albeit with better cinematography
and no laughter track. It certainly paints its characters with similar
stereotypical imagery -- the bimbo is a gum-chewing blonde who's constantly
protruding her boobs; the fat kid is always stuffing himself; the school
bullies wear ripped jeans and say "man" a lot -- I could go on, but you get
the point.
On the other hand, that cinematography that I
barely mentioned has an immensely satisfying glow about it, and although
all the characters may be one-dimensional, at least their appearances have
enjoyable sex appeal. The "Real World" satire is hilarious. The song "Kiss
Me" is there for soppy manipulation, but it's so nice, it works. And there's
a terrific dance number to Fatboy Slim's "Funk Soul Brother" which everybody
in the cinema seemed to be eating up.
To put all its content into context, though, consider
that "She's All That" is a Miramax release. That company has redefined the
common definition of "independent cinema", from an idea of cheap, obscure,
hard-to-find films to films that can be commercially viable while
reasonably-budgeted, adult and intelligent. Miramax have brought indie work
good revenues and top Oscars -- examples include the recent "English Patient"
and "Shakespeare in Love". "She's All That", completely predictable from
the adverts alone, is not something Miramax should be proud of -- however
we weigh up its pettier pros and cons, that one vital fact should never be
forgotten.
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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