“ Who needs metformin 500 mg for weight loss affection when you can have blind hatred?”
For a certain kind of girl, Kat Stratford is god. She’s smart, plays soccer, and doesn’t take crap from anybody. It’s the feminist dream. Or maybe just mine. Whatever. What I’m trying to get at is that Kat Stratford represents the intelligent girl all us nerd girls wanted to be in high school. Namely, a badass. While I’m still trying to become that awesome, 10 Things I Hate About You remains one of my favorite movies.
A modern update of Shakespeare’s troublesome* comedy The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things takes place in a Seattle high school. Presumably this was filmed in the 4 weeks a year that city is sunny. The movie is pretty much one of those “let’s bet we can get that weird girl to go out with some guy” movie without the make-over montage. This is replaced by a paintball montage.
*And by troublesome, I mean blatantly misogynistic.
So the plot: new guy Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) wants to date hot girl Bianca (Larisa Oleynik, of The Secret World of Alex Mac fame–best show ever, right?), but Bianca can’t date until her feminazi sister Kat (Julia Stiles) dates because of their overly strict dad (Larry Miller). So Cameron and his trusty sidekick Michael (David Krumholtz) swindle rich douchebag Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan) into finding Kat a date, and they find that in Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger). Typical teen movie plot points ensue with more laughs than thought feasible.
“Who knocked up your sister?”
A lot of those laughs come from the small touches from the clique of white Rastas to the awful pop culture references the dad throws in involving the “Dawson’s Rivers kids.” Plus, the film has the most exciting English teacher in the world, the poetry rapping Mr. Morgan (Daryl Mitchell).
Although a class that includes Kat, Patrick, and Joey begs the questions, why aren’t there ever honors or AP classes in movies? Because we segregated the crap between the smart and the unmotivated in my high school. I guess this gives the movie an excuse to maximize drama opportunities? Whatever.
Back on task, the film occasionally suffers from terrible broad humor (see: flashing the soccer coach to get Patrick out of detention), but the vast majority of the jokes work. A lot of that has to do with the cast’s chemistry. Ledger and Stiles genuinely seem like they’re having fun trading insults as their characters fall in love, and Krumholtz has just enough neurosis to work. Overall, these are funny lines delivered well.
“Heinous bitch is the term used most often.”
And of course we get to bask in Allison Janney’s glory. She’s my hero. While I’d like to place most of the reason she’s my hero on her role as press secretary CJ Cregg on The West Wing, I also have to give credit to her fabulous trifecta of teen movies Drop Dead Gorgeous, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Juno. Her role as guidance counselor Ms. Perky is both great and disturbing. Nothing is funnier than badly written romance novels. Plus, it’s combined with the incompetence of public school authority figures. Win!
But I think we can all agree the success of this movie hinges on Heath Ledger’s character. He’s surprisingly charming as the mysterious bad boy and is the perfect foil for Gordon-Levitt’s character, oozing of confidence that Cameron can only dream of. Plus, he has the impossible task of performing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” without making me throw up (speaking of Drop Dead Gorgeous) and succeeds at it:
Now just mix Heath Ledger’s sex appeal, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s innocence, and Julia Stiles’ sass with some late 90s ska, and have a big showdown at the prom. And there you have the perfect comfort food movie.
Directed by Gil Junger. Written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith based on the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. Cinematography by Mark Irwin. Edited by O. Nicholas Brown. Production Design by Carol Winstead Wood. Original Music by Richard Gibbs.
Starring: Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, Andrew Keegan, and Larry Miller
