She’s All That
The Return of Freddie Prinze Jr.
A Quick Search on IMDB: She’s All That was written by R. Lee Fleming Jr., directed by Robert Iscove, and was released in 1999.
Before the Viewing: This is one of those movies where I feel like I’ve already seen it before.
As far as I know, She’s All That was the prototype for most of the teen/young adult romance movies/books I watched/read growing up. I’m pretty sure it’s the classic, “she took off her glasses, now she’s beautiful,” and “boy meets girl with mean intentions but ends up falling in love with her,” all wrapped up in one film.
Though I find said taking-off-glasses trope offensive for…personal reasons… I’m actually kind of excited to sit down and finally watch this. And yes, my crush on Freddie Prinze Jr. has a lot to do with it. But also, I’ve mentioned before that I recently sat down and binge-watched the entire series run of Psych. Freddie was in an episode — which I think kickstarted this second phase of my once dormant crush on him — but the titular She, the one who is apparently All That, Rachael Leigh Cook, also had a character arc on the same show. (And though I totally shipped Shawn and Juliet, I also really liked Rachael’s character and her relationship with Shawn, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Just Started the Viewing: Okay, I’m three minutes and forty-two seconds into the movie and I was already making notes about how there were a lot of names in the opening credits I wasn’t expecting to see in this (Usher???). Then my beloved Dulé Hill — whom I’ve loved since I saw Holes in theaters as a kid, then loved even more in Psych — showed up and I got so excited that I had to pause and write this little blurb.
I was kind of thinking this movie might end up annoying me because of all the derivatives I’m pretty sure I’ve seen, and lest we forget the glasses thing, but I’m very excited now.
Dulé really said, “I can fix that.” (Sorry, I had to, now I’m crying.)
After the Viewing: This movie was almost exactly what I thought it was going to be.
Growing up, a lot of the TV shows and movies I watched gave me very unrealistic expectations of what high school was really like. The Most Popular Guy and Girl in School that everyone fawns over for no reason? Popular Guys are Star Athletes who wear letterman jackets all the time? Popular Girls are all Dumb Bitches who only care about fashion? The girl with dark hair is a Weird Nerd who the popular people make fun of for no reason other than they have glasses and an interest in something? For some reason a kid spends his Whole Day on the intercom unsupervised, spreading everyone’s gossip? All everyone fucking cares about is Prom???
I know I’m talking about fiction, but this shit does not happen in the real world. Not at Cony High School in Augusta, ME from 2009–2013 at the very least. Hell, my senior class voted against even having a prom, but that’s because administration passed this whole no grinding at school dances thing halfway through our high school experience and it was not received well.
All that said, I really enjoyed She’s All That. Maybe it’s because I was a teenager/new adult during the renaissance of Mean Girls (I swear to God, if I see one more post about October 3rd…), but She’s All That actually subverted some of my expectations. Yes, I just ranted about how unrealistic a lot of it is, but there was a lot more that I appreciated about this movie.
Yes, my dear Freddie Prinze Jr and his asshole friend, Paul Walker, were both Jerks in the beginning and I wondered why Dulé Hill would even bother being friends with them, but I loved seeing Freddie learn to appreciate Rachael Leigh Cook (sorry, I refuse to use anyone’s character’s name in this) for who she is instead of what she looks like. And yes, he did kind of force himself on her in a way that would definitely not fly in today’s world, but that was even addressed in the movie. In fact, there’s a lot of problematic shit in this movie, but I really wasn’t expecting there not to be.
Sorry, incoherently ranting again.
To reiterate, the main premise of She’s All That was exactly what I thought. Ugly duckling changes out of her overalls/one-piece bathing suit, takes her glasses off, and puts on some make-up and she’s suddenly a thing to be desired. Though she’s unpopular, everyone seems to hate her for being artistic and wearing glasses instead of just ignoring her like most of us Not-Like-Other-Girls were (yes, I was once one of Them and I hate that about myself).
But one of the most touching moments in the whole movie for me was the inevitable makeover scene. I knew it was going to happen. I was dreading it because I’m just not about perpetuating that looks are everything. Then Anna Paquin’s character introduced Rachael Leigh Cook and I genuinely smiled.
“Gentlemen, let me introduce the new — not improved, but different — Laney Boggs.”
That line caught me so off-guard. I just loved how even this movie, this creation that inspired so many more “you’re prettier without your glasses” productions, knew that Rachael Leigh Cook was great before she took off the overalls. I dunno, man, I just thought it was awfully sweet.
In Conclusion: I think it’s kind of sad that that Anna Paquin line was so overshadowed by everything else in the movie. “Who cares that make-up and contacts aren’t all it should take to be appreciated by your peers? Usher’s character choreographed a dance to Fatboy Slim’s ‘Rockafeller Skank,’ in time for the Prom.”
I was prepared to be A) just staring dreamily at young Freddie Prinze Jr whenever he was on-screen and B) highly offended. And yeah, the misogyny and stuff are a little hard to digest, but just that one line from Anna Paquin made me see the movie in a whole new perspective.
It’s not the most progressive in some places, but I found it to be a much more enjoyable watch than I thought I would.
Oh, and now “Kiss Me” is stuck in my head. Please help.
