She’s All That (1999)

Directed by Robert Iscove. Starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Paul Wallker, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Matthew Lillard, Dulé Hill, Kevin Pollak, Elden Henson, Anna Paquin, Kieran Culkin, Clea DuVall, Tamara Mello, Gabrielle Union, Tim Matheson, Usher Raymond. [PG-13]

In response to getting dumped by his bitchy girlfriend near the end of his senior year, high school stud Prinze Jr. asserts she was only popular because of her connection to his status, andmakes a bet he can turn any socially-uncouth classmate “into the prom queen” in just a few weeks. What luck, the so-called clumsy loser selected as his Eliza Dolittle happens to look like Rachael Leigh Cook…if you just get rid of those ridiculous glasses, gawd! As inane as it is innocuous, the title tips us off right away over how shallow and time-capsule-dated this teen movie is going to be. Not exactly unwatchable—it’s too earnest to come off as a bottom-feeder pandering exclusively to the youth market—but it’s such an utterly predictable and sugar-coated fantasy that we end up feeling bad for the girl who gets her priorities screwed up and pursues the shiny jock instead of advancing her iconoclastic free-spiritedness. Sharper writing in the vein of Clueless or Mean Girls would have helped make it less painless; more jaw-dropping scenes like the synchronized prom dance number would have helped make it more stupidly hysterical. Features uncredited screenplay contributions from…M. Night Shyamalan?? A gender-switcheroo redo called He’s All That was produced in 2021.

32/100