10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/10thingsihateaboutyou.html Member: Online Film Critics Society
*** out of four
Starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt, Larisa Oleynik. Rated PG-13.
The teen comedy genre has been a wildly successful one these past few years, as we've seen all kinds of rip-offs, abominations and even a few straining originals. It's even spawned a few updates of Shakespeare and Dickens, the weirdest of which was Leonardo DiCaprio's love-it-or-hate-it 1996 radical version of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Yes, we've gotten some weird, weird films, some hopelessly raunchy, others openly profound. 10 Things I Hate About You is somewhere in between. Very loosely based on (maybe even just inspired by) William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew, one thing that 10 Things has going for it is a teriffic ensemble cast of teens. Larisa Oleynik (of Nickelodeon fame) is Bianca Stratford, a gorgeous and insanely popular sophomore that has one monkey on her back: her dad will not let her date... until her sister, Kat Stratford does. The problem is that Kat is rather anti-social, to put it mildly, and getting her to date is almost as inconceivable to her as getting her dad to loosen up (fairly inconceivable, in case you do not get my drift).
That also presents a problem for newcomer Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who has a major crush on Bianca. Fortunately for him he has a quick-thinking pal who gets Joey, the school hunk with a crush for Bianca, to pay another guy to date Kat. The conflict, then is who will get the girl, Joey (the jerk) or Cameron (the nice guy).
10 Things has little more in common with The Taming of The Shrew than my mother does with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but it doesn't really make much difference. This is one of the more energetic teen films that I've watched lately; not as hypnotically laid back as Varsity Blues or as uneven as She's All That. That almost always works to the movie's advantage; because lame scenes are made nifty by the movie's endless energy. Something like a guy serenading a girl who is angry at him through the PA system on the soccer field would be ridiculously schmaltzy in any other movie, but when said guy starts running around spanking policemen who are trying to apprehend him the whole scene takes on an appealing quality.
The performances in 10 Things are likewise stellar. Although Gordon-Levitt is moderately annoying in a role it's difficult not to be annoying in, other young actors and actresses triumph. Julia Stiles is achingly sincere as Kat Stratford, with a kind of unapproachable vulnerability about her. Andrew Keagan is effectively repulsive as the conceited school hunk used as a pawn by Cameron and his friends. But the highlight of the bunch is the beautiful, funny, charming Larisa Oleynik. Previously seen on the Nickelodeon tv show The Secret World of Alex Mack, this actress is clearly likeable enough to have a great future in Hollywood.
10 Things I Hate About You is certainly not without its flaws. We have the usual "I was a bet?/You were payed to like me?" speech which is like a rubber stamp in these teen movies. Another rubber stamp is the fact that the film ends with a prom. The prom is a perfect symbol of teenage angst when utilized correctly (remember Carrie?) but nowadays we see proms that end with disaster so often (even in the recent Never Been Kissed which I happened to like) that it is no longer effective at projecting teenage anger at the world.
Still, those relatively minor complaints are not nearly enough to discredit this teriffic little movie, which is entertaining despite all of its flaws. It is nothing unique to be sure, but it is a nice diversion if one has a rainy evening with nothing to do on one's hands.
©1999 Eugene Novikov‰
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