She's All That
USA 1999
Reviewed by Geoffrey Macnab
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
An LA high school. Zack, the most popular student in his class and strongly tipped as prom king, has just split up from his girlfriend Taylor who dumped him for minor television star Brock. In jest, he bets his friend Dean he could make any girl he wanted prom queen. Dean can pick the girl. Into their sight walks Laney Boggs, a diffident, short-sighted misfit specialising in art. Zack is from a wealthy background, but Laney's family is poor. Her widowed father is a pool repairman. At first Laney resists Zack's charms, but she's partly won over when he performs an inventive routine with a hackysack at the conceptual arts club she frequents.
Laney stands as prom queen against Taylor who has now split up with Brock. On the eve of the prom, Dean tells Laney about the terms of the bet. Furious, Laney breaks off with Zack who goes to the prom with his sister. Laney goes with Dean. Zack is elected prom king but Laney is narrowly defeated by Taylor. She leaves with Dean, who is planning to drug and seduce her. Zack goes after them. Laney escapes from Dean and returns home to find Zack; they embrace.
Review
The gawky, plain Jane from the wrong side of the tracks who only needs to loosen her hair and take off her spectacles to become beautiful is one of the oldest stock types. From Ruby Keeler in musicals of the 30s to Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink, countless films have featured their own variations on the Cinderella myth. Robert Iscove's teen comedy She's All That follows in their wake, blithely invoking all the familiar high-school clichés. There's the handsome football hero, the bitch queen and the ugly duckling who soon turns into a beautiful princess. It's not as startling a transformation as the film-makers suggest. Laney may be short-sighted and intellectual (the two go together in films), but she is never really as gauche as all that, just in need of a new dress and a better haircut.
Occasionally the film seems caught in a time bubble. When the kids are playing volleyball or performing their own set dance at the prom, it's as if we've slipped back into the world of Frankie Avalon. Where The Faculty (also made by Miramax) portrayed high school as a battlefield, with teenagers pitched against teachers, the mood Iscove strikes here is altogether more benevolent. There may be divisions between the jocks and the 'dweebs', but none of their lives is tarnished by drugs, guns or racism. Laney's dad, a likable loser, is a struggling pool repairman, but even he gets by happily enough. From time to time it's hinted Zack is at odds with his own father, but that doesn't seem to stop him getting top grades or being the star of the high-school soccer team.
A more daring film-maker might have laid bare the shallowness of a society in which popularity is programmed by athleticism and good looks. But Iscove doesn't seem interested in Heathers-style satire. Predictably, the most repellent characters are the most colourful. While Laney and Zack are almost terminally bland, Taylor (played with brassy élan by Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) is altogether more charismatic. Whether hurling abuse at her fellow students, dancing Salome-like in her bikini, or pouring a drink down Laney's cleavage, she gets all the best moments. Her only rival is Matthew Lillard as Brock, a belching, big-headed actor, so vain he even interrupts his love-making to watch reruns of his own show.
Iscove (whose background is in directing tele-movies) conjures up the occasional inventive moment, for instance Zack's "living art" performance with the hackysack, or the prom-night dance. Rachael Leigh Cook's appealing, if anodyne, performance rekindles memories of Olivia Newton-John at her most demure. What the film lacks, though, is any sense of teen spirit or rebelliousness. Adolescence was never supposed to be this wholesome.
Credits
- Producers
- Peter Abrams
- Robert L. Levy
- Richard N. Gladstein
- Screenplay
- R. Lee Fleming Jr
- Director of Photography
- Francis Kenny
- Editor
- Casey O Rohrs
- Production Designer
- Charles Breen
- Music
- Stewart Copeland
- ©Miramax Film Corp.
- Production Companies
- a Tapestry Films/FilmColony production
- Executive Producers
- Bob Weinstein
- Harvey Weinstein
- Co-executive Producers
- Jeremy Kramer
- Jill Sobel Messick
- Co-producers
- Jennifer Gibgot
- Richard Hull
- Line Producer
- Louise Rosner
- FilmColony Production Executive
- Lila Yacoub
- Tapestry Development Executive
- Andrew Panay
- Production Co-ordinator
- Catherine S. McComb
- Unit Production Manager
- Louise Rosner
- Location Manager
- John Agolia
- Post-production Supervisor
- Maggie Cone
- Assistant Directors
- James Sbardellati
- Randall Badger
- Alexander Ellis
- Lucille Ouyang
- Christine Tope
- Script Supervisor
- Scott Peterson
- Casting
- Ed Mitchell
- Robin Ray
- Rick Pagano
- ADR Voice:
- L.A. MadDogs
- Camera Operators
- Thomas Yatsko
- Michelle Negrin
- Steadicam Operator
- Andy Shuttleworth
- Video Displays
- E=mc2
- Video Supervisor:
- Bob Morgenroth
- Video Co-ordinator:
- Brett Cody
- Video Operators:
- Geoff Haley
- Rob Nelson
- Art Director
- Gary Diamond
- Set Director
- Jeffrey Kushon
- Costume Designer
- Denise Wingate
- Costume Supervisor
- Donna Barrish
- Key Make-up Artist
- Felicity Bowring
- Key Hair Stylist
- Thomas Real
- Main/End Titles Design
- Movie Titles Company
- Dan Perri
- Opticals
- Howard Anderson Company
- Music Supervisor
- Amanda Scheer-Demme
- Music Editors
- Michael Dittrick
- Jonathan Karp
- Music Consultant
- Buck Damon
- Soundtrack
- "Prophecy" by/performed by Remy Zero; "Baby Got Going" by Liz Phair, Scott Litt, performed by Liz Phair; "Be Free" by Allan Pineda, William Adams, Stahl, Goldberg, performed by Black Eyed Peas; "Blacktop Beat" by Lucas MacFadden, performed by Jurassic 5; "Up to Us" by/performed by Allrighse; "Sugar" by Lloyd, Wright, Magee, performed by Stretch Princess; "Kiss Me" by Matt Slocum, performed by Sixpence; "Test the Theory" performed by Audioweb; "Gorgeous" by Kat Green, performed by Girl Next Door; "Ooh La La" by Theo Keating, performed by The Wiseguys; "Give It to Me Baby" by/performed by Rick James; "Shuck & Jive" by John Davis, performed by Superdag; "Hanging On" by Emily Gerber, Carlos Calvo, performed by Emily & Carlos; "66" by Greg Dulli, performed by The Afghan Whigs; "Nonstop Operation" by Tommy Lockett, S. Hickling, S. Jones, M. Lawrence, G. Gasper, P. Billington, performed by Dust Junkys; "Believe" by/performed by Goldie; "The Rockafeller Skank" by Norman Cook, Terry Winford, John Barry, performed by Fatboy Slim
- Choreography
- Adam Shankman
- Sound Mixer
- Mark Weingarten
- Re-recording Mixer
- Gary Bourgeois
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Paul Clay
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Gil Combs
- Cast
- Freddie Prinze Jr
- Zack Siler
- Rachael Leigh Cook
- Laney Boggs
- Matthew Lillard
- Brock Hudson
- Paul Walker
- Dean Sampson
- Jodi Lyn O'Keefe
- Taylor Vaughan
- Kevin Pollak
- Wayne Boggs
- Kieran Culkin
- Simon Boggs
- Elden Henson
- Jesse Jackson
- Usher Raymond
- campus DJ
- Kimberly 'Lil' Kim' Jones
- Alex
- Debbi Morgan
- Ms Rousseau
- Tim Matheson
- Harlan Siler
- Anna Paquin
- Mackenzie Siler
- Gabrielle Union
- Katie
- Dulé Hill
- Preston Harrison
- Tamara Mello
- Chandler
- Clea Duvall
- Misty
- Alexis Arquette
- Mitch, performance artist
- Dave Buzzotta
- Jeffrey Munge Rylander
- Chris Owen
- Derek Funkhouse Rutley
- Charlie Dell
- elderly man
- Michael Milhoan
- Principal Stickley
- Carlos Jacott
- prom photographer
- Ashlee Levitch
- Melissa
- Vanessa Lee Chester
- girl 2
- Patricia Charbonneau
- Lois Siler
- Katherine Towne
- Savannah
- Wendy Fowler
- Harmony
- Flex Alexander
- Kadeem
- Bob Baglia
- beatnik
- Debbie Lee Carrington
- Felicity
- Clay Rivers
- Gustave
- Sara Rivas
- vampire girl
- Amon Bourne
- Takbir Bashir
- Anthony 'Click' Rivera
- rappers
- Jarrett Lennon
- Naylon
- Milo Ventimiglia
- soccer player
- Kenté Scott
- sophomore boy
- Kim Cotton
- T.J. Espinoza
- Brian Friedman
- Tony Fugate
- Caroline Girvin
- Alicia Gilley
- Scott Hislop
- Jennifer Keyes
- Richard Kim
- Stephanie Landwehr
- Dani Lee
- Joe Loera
- Mayah McCoy
- Yesha Orange
- Robert Schultz
- Josh Seffinger
- Sarah Smith
- Christopher Smith
- Bree Turner
- Christine Vincent
- Jerry 'Flo' Randolph
- dancers
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Film Four Distributors
- 8,595 feet
- 95 minutes 30 seconds
- SDDS/Digital DTS sound/Dolby/Dolby digital
- Colour by
- DeLuxe