Movie Breakdown: He’s All That
Pre-Screening Stance:
1999’s She’s All That is not a good movie, but it hit theaters when I was 16 years old and therefore I’ve always had a soft spot for it. Now, here at 38, will He’s All That work for me at all? Probably not, but I will say I’m encouraged by the fact that it’s directed by Mark Waters (he did Mean Girls).
Post-Screening Ramble:
He’s All That is bad, and not in a good way. The main plot is, in case you haven’t already guessed, the inverse of She’s All That – a girl, Padgett (Addison Rae), accepts a challenge to turn any random guy into prom king. She chooses an artsy boy, Cameron (Tanner Buchanan), and then they go on to learn a lot about each other and – most importantly – themselves. The simplicity of this story worked in the aforementioned movie from 1999, but that’s because Rachel Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr. had good chemistry. Addison Rae and Tanner Buchanan do not. In fact, they always seem as though they’re talking at each other and feigning any real level of enthusiasm or sincerity. Although, to be fair, it’s less Buchanon and more Rae that is problematic on the screen – she isn’t particularly charismatic, nor does she ever really get the tone of any scene right. I’ll give it to director Mark Waters though, he tries his best to cover up her deficiencies. He let’s her dance as often as possible, as these moments have no dialogue (and it’s what she’s famous for on TikTok). Also, every scene is edited and assembled in a way that allows no time for you to think about anything, as if the movie is trying to race to the finish line, to end before anyone can notice that it was impossible to tell whether the dialogue from a moment ago was meant to be serious or funny. He also distracts you with some of the most wildly blatant product placement I’ve seen in some time. I’m talking all food is served with the logo out and characters ask for things by brand (i.e. there is no pizza, it’s Pizza Hut pizza).
In the end, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything this year that feels less hollow and more like a cash grab than He’s All That. Don’t be in any hurry whatsoever to watch it. The movie is on Netflix as of today, August 27.
One Last Thought:
Rachael Leigh Cook and Matthew Lilliard are in this movie but neither of them are the characters they played in She’s All That, which I thought made no sense at all. What are we doing here?
