I Finally Watched: 'She's All That'
My plan last week was to finally watch three teen movies from the late nineties. However, I realized one movie was recorded on a channel we didn’t get (I must have just missed a free-preview weekend) and another was a partial recording, so I watched only one of the three. Which one? She’s All That.
When big-man-on-campus Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) is dumped by his trophy girlfriend, he accepts a bet to prove any girl can be turned into the prom queen. Nerdy and reclusive art student Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) becomes Zack’s unknowing project, and he tries his best to make her “all that.”
She’s All That is among the best-known teen films from my time in high school. According to Box Office Mojo, it was the highest grossing teen romance in the 1990s and the decade’s second highest grossing high school comedy. Much like 10 Things I Hate About You and American Pie (which was the partial recording mentioned above), She’s All That is one of the movies I feel behooved to watch out of generational kinship. It’s a movie about teens when I was a teen—which makes it both endearing and uncomfortable. Though it’s fun revisiting the era through its movies, it opens a mixed bag of emotions and memories.
She’s All That is a weird movie. Though it’s funny, checks a lot of the usual teen-movie boxes (not a measure of quality but fun to note), and does what it says, it’s missing something.
But first, the good things.
She’s All That is exaggerated for effect and has its funny moments, but the comedy is mostly unoriginal. One can see the man at the falafel joint asking to supersize his balls a mile away.
Cook is super cute despite the attempt to make her “scary and inaccessible.” Much like the before version of Louise Miller in Teen Witch, I prefer the before version of Laney Boggs. She’s intriguing and sexy, especially in glasses (she was hot in glasses before Tina Fey) and the smock she wears almost constantly. Thinking about it now, though, there is no clear-cut before and after version because Boggs does not undergo a complete transformation—or at least that’s what it seems like to me. Regardless, she’s adorable throughout the movie.
On that note, perhaps the movie was so popular because of Prinze, who was a teen heartthrob in the late nineties. Adding Walker to the mix no doubt boosted the movie’s appeal to the same demographic. They’re a one-two punch reminiscent of Halle Berry and Rosamund Pike in Die Another Day—the only redeeming quality of that movie.
Usher as the school DJ is the best thing about the movie. However, I’m unsure if the school has a radio station or if he’s a student public-address announcer. I can’t remember if the movie makes it clear, but I’m leaning toward there being a radio station.
Despite the title, She’s All That doesn’t have all that. Noticeably absent from the movie is an organic relationship between Zack and Laney, something I feel is necessary to solidify the story. Though they realize they share commonalities, Zack and Laney’s relationship does not click for me; it develops too quickly and artificially. It feels like one of those old-school “I learned to love him” relationships. It’s unsexy and makes the movie feel rushed and hollow.
It annoys me that Laney submits (though somewhat begrudgingly) to Zack’s advances and attempts to change her. She hesitates and rebuffs him but relents every time. Why? (For the sake of the story, of course!) I think she’s stronger than that. She’s socially awkward and emotionally vulnerable, but her characterization does not give me the impression that she’s pliable and easily molded. I want her to be much more hesitant and unwilling to change, resolute in being herself, much more guarded and suspicious of Zack’s intentions.
What really bothers me is the movie’s message. In a contemporary review for Empire, William Thomas wrote that although She’s All That “is a sassy, sunny confection with its Clueless jargon” and a recognizable cast, it is “breezy propaganda for American high school fascism” (https://www.empireonline.com/movies/shesallthat/review/). I can’t agree more when he goes on to write, “The most worrying thing about She’s All That is its message. The ‘ugly duckling’ (specs, dungarees, art-lover) must conform (she gets a makeover and the boys notice her ‘bobos’ for the first time) to fit in.” Granted, the movie is about Zack changing Laney into the stereotypical prom queen, but it does convey a message of conformity: One needs to fit in in order to be acceptable and likeable to the beautiful people.
To be fair, the prom queen is unfavorably characterized, Laney resists total transformation, and Zack and Laney are supposed to represent extremes, but the movie makes it clear at the end that Zack changes Laney more than she changes him; she’s moved closer to him than he has to her. One could argue they both change for the better: Zack is more open-minded and accepting and she’s more sociable and accessible, all of which are worthwhile and helpful qualities in life. At the very least, both serve as inspirations to each other. Regardless, the film does not sit well with me.
Much like Once Bitten reframed from Robin’s perspective would be very interesting, I think the same can be done for She’s All That: reverse the roles so Laney tries to transform Zack. A little bit of that happens in the movie, but it’s not to the extent that Zack tries to change Laney. How would that story work? Why would Laney try to change him? I’m unsure.
On to the miscellany!
• Laney is encouraged to kill herself by two snobbish art students because her art will be better appreciated posthumously. Whoa. Uncool.
• I was really heavy during my early teen years and got bullied for it, mostly by one person in particular. After I watched the lunchroom bullying scene in She’s All That, I wondered why I didn’t kick my bully in the balls. I know why—because I’m a chicken—but watching scenes like that make me regret not standing up for myself when I was younger, not putting up a fight to teach assholes some respect. A well-placed and powerful kick to the gonads may have angered this person and led to bruises of my own, but it could have stopped his bullying for good. It’s a chance I wish I would have taken.
• Chandler’s outrageous outfits make her look like a Delia’s model.
• I couldn’t tell what beer people are drinking at the party scene and it really annoyed me.
• Much like Zack and Laney’s relationship does not click for me, neither does the impromptu dance scene set to Fatboy Slim’s “The Rockafeller Skank.” My notes say, “Dance scene: Why, God, why?” Prinze has some moves, though.
• Zack does an impromptu performance piece with a Hacky Sack, but he does not seem to be the hacky-sack type. (Hacky Sacks are synonymous with stoners to me.) However, he is a soccer player so perhaps it fits his characterization.
• There is a minor controversy about who wrote the script. R. Lee Fleming, Jr. is officially credited as the sole screenwriter, but M. Night Shyamalan has stated that he either polished or ghostwrote the script.
• There is a lot of cigarette smoking in She’s All That, at least compared to other movies from the era. From what I can remember, smoking cigarettes was really uncool when I was in high school.
• In honor of the late Luke Perry, I want to note that She’s All That features quite a few aggressive sideburns.
• Except for the inclusion of “The Rockafeller Skank” and Rick James’s “Give It To Me Baby,” the soundtrack is mostly forgettable.
• The soccer game or practice (it seems more like a practice) features the worst goalkeeping ever.
