 If there was ever a movie that made me truly appreciate Emma Stone, it was probably this one. I tend to see this as the movie where Emma Stone essentially plays herself, at least as far as her character's personality goes. When I see her being interviewed, I certainly feel this character come through more than, say, Mia from 'La La Land'. Although, it's safe to say, she brings a lot of herself in just about anything she plays; it's part of what makes her so incredibly charming. Add to that her Oscar-worthy talent, and she makes for my favorite actress, and she has been for quite some time.
Narrated by Olive Pendergast (Stone), she tells us a story via "web broadcast" after her high school life has taken a turn for the worse. She is here to tell us her side of the story as opposed to all of the hearsay around the school yard about her. So, she's speaking to us as though we're fellow students who may have heard some pretty nasty things about her, possibly judging her without hearing her side of the story - a habit I think we have all been guilty of, especially back in those angsty days of high school. It all stats with Olive lying to her friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) about having a date in place of a weekend camping trip Rhiannon wants her to take with her parents. The following Monday, Rhiannon asks Olive for explicit details of the date, and presses her to "admit" to losing her virginity. At first, word gets around, and people start paying attention to Olive, which she appreciates after being overlooked for so long (by the way, yes, this is another teen movie cliche where the "unattractive" girl is in actuality gorgeous). Things begin to spiral a bit, however, when she agrees to help an unpopular gay student, Brendon (Dan Byrd) out by "taking his virginity", faking it at a high school party. Soon, her reputation gets out of hand and she has to learn about a few things the hard way, all the while trying to do the right thing. The whole execution is actually very well done, becase it allows the audience to understand both perspectives. It would be easy to get sucked into the rumor mill, but I feel like if you were ever a high school student, you have probably also been in Olive's position, one way or another. Directed by Will Gluck, this is sort of his shining star, and has often been toted as Emma Stone's 'Mean Girls' in the sense that it's her true breakout role. We knew her from things like 'Zombieland' and 'Superbad' before this, sure, but this was what really made the masses notice her; especially as a character just about anyone who has ever attended high school can relate to. Considering Lindsay Lohan in 'Mean Girls', it may not have been her breakout role, but it was definitely the highlight of her acting career, and when people noticed she wasn't just a child actress anymore. Back to the point, however, Stone would show her Oscar-worthy talent just one year later in 'The Help' (although she wasn't nominated that year). There is, of course, plenty more talent than just Emma here as well. Throughout the film, we meet the likes of her favorite teacher, Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church) who is married to her guidance councilor, Mrs. Griffith (Lisa Kudrow), and both bring a good laugh to the screen. However no one quite tops her most awesome parents, Dill (Stanley Tucci) and Rosemary (Patricia Clarkson). To top the family's food name sequence off, they also have an adopted son named Chip (Bryce Clyde Jenkins). These are the open-minded, funny and totally casual parents one might envy, and they're easily one of the highlights of the movie. Of course, things wouldn't be complete without a perfect villain in the form of Marianne (Amanda Bynes) who we sort of love to hate, but her character is pretty hilarious with how over-the-top she is. I don't have a whole lot more to say on the matter, but I did choose to close out this month's theme with perhaps my favorite of the bunch. Besides the fact that it's Emma Stone (who I clearly love), there are many likable characters and funny lines throughout the film, and frankly, if you did like 'Mean Girls' and haven't seen this yet, you're totally missing out. There are a lot of similarities, but not the least of which is the film's sense of teen-angsty humor. The only thing that could have made it much better would have been if John Hughes was around to direct it, as he could have added his perfect teen movie touch to it. But it's still great as it is, and it doesn't deny any appreciation for John Hughes' classics from the 80s - hell, it mentions them throughout. So, if you're on the lookout for a very solid teen movie that you may have missed (I find there's still so many who haven't seen this), I highly recommend giving it a watch.
0 Comments
 In truth, I haven't actually watched this in ages. However, I'll always remember liking it back upon its release in '99, making me an 11th-grader at the time. So the timing was pretty good when it popped up that year. It was perhaps the first example I remember of leaving the theater thinking about how I enjoyed it, while one friend I saw it with passed it off as an awkward "chick flick", bt didn't care what he thought of my opinion on it, which was quite positive.
The story here doesn't center on so much as revolve around bitter teenager Kat Stratford (Julia Styles). She's a bit of a loner, and not very-well liked due to her negative attitude towards basically everything. Her sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), is the popular, pretty girl in school who everyone seems to desire. As a result, they have a pretty toxic sisterhood between them. The sisters live with their overprotective father, Walter (Larry Miller), under the house rule that they are not to date until after they graduate high school. While Bianca is interested in dating, Kat doesn't really want anything to do with it, and therefore their father makes a deal with Bianca; she can date if Kat starts dating. Meanwhile, smitten-with-Bianca, is one Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). New to the school, he's shown the ropes by the awkward and geeky Michael Eckman (David Krumholtz) and warned about not pursuing his interest in Bianca due to their father's rule. As a result, Cameron works with Michael on devising a plan to get someone to date Kat so that he can have some sort of shot at dating Bianca. This plan involves bringing in tough guy, Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) who Cameron believes would be about the only guy who would potentially put up with Kat's attitude. Anyway, the whole thing does become a pretty big mish-mash of love interest vs love interest, and can get a bit complex at times. I haven't even mentioned Bianca's interest in the cocky senior model, Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan), but I could be here all day explaining away. For me, I suppose the charm of the film comes from the idea that the plot is so very "high school". It's also not so much about "getting laid" as it's about actually falling for someone and the desire to be with that person. It has its moments, but you can't very well look at this movie and say it's a raunchy, although it still feels very "teen movie". I'd put this one a little more alongside something like 'Can't Hardly Wait' than something like 'American Pie'. Being that it was '99, there's also that bit of a nostalgic factor. In the late 90s, teen movies really made a comeback, and I daresay this was one of the better of them. As far as this being a recommendation, I suppose it's for those of us who can appreciate something a little more "Hughes-esque" when it comes to a teen movie execution. It's for 'Breakfast Club' or 'Pretty in Pink' fans a touch more than it's for 'American Pie' or 'Superbad' fans. All that said, I'm fairly bias towards teen movies, myself. I really do enjoy a good coming-of-age movie, and this is quite a good one. If nothing else, it's fun to go back on, recognizing some of those forgotten faces, seeing Heath Ledger's breakthrough performance and seeing where we dropped Joseph Gordon-Levitt off as a young up-and-comer, before picking him up again in '500 Days of Summer' as an a sudden fan-favorite (although for me, that was 'Inception').  Believe it or not, there was a point in time when Lindsay Lohan was considered a sort of "America's Sweetheart" as she was growing up. Her big run spanned between 1998's 'The Parent Trap' to 2005's 'Herbie: Fully Loaded'. She's still going, but she sort of just pops up here and there these days, and she doesn't seem either welcome or unwelcome. Either way, it's probably safe to say that when it comes to Lohan, 'Mean Girls' would most likely be considered her magnum opus.
Here, Lohan stars as 16-year-old Cady Heron alongside some fresh and now famous faces who include Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lizzy Caplan, and to a lesser extent, Lacey Chabert, who some probably recognized at the time from 'Party of Five'. But it's interesting to note that this was a film that provided a few break-through roles for some pretty recognizable faces nowadays; namely Caplan, McAdams and Seyfried. It's a neat time capsule to go back on to see these women just starting out, and the roles that arguably spurred them into stardom. Getting back to the plot, however, Cady has recently moved from Africa to Illinois with her zoologist parents, Betsy (Ana Gasteyer) and Chip (Neil Flynn). After being homeschooled for the majority of her life, Cady now must face common, American high school in all it's horrendous glory. Though her first day doesn't exactly go well, she eventually becomes friends with classmates Janis Ian (Caplan) and her gay best friend, Damian Leigh (Daniel Franzese). The pair show her the ropes, which includes pointing out the different cliques throughout the school. The most popular clique, dubbed the "Plastics", consists of three of the most popular girls in school; Regina George (McAdams) is considered the "queen bee" of the group; Gretchen Wieners (Chabert) is the rich girl whose Dad invented Toaster Strudels; and Karen Smith (Seyfried) is the typical dumb blonde type, but honestly one of the funniest parts of the movie. One day the Plastics have Cady sit with them, and in their own way befriend her mostly due to the fact that she's very pretty and could be among the popular girls. When Janis and Ian find out that Cady's hanging out with these "mean girls", the three come up with a plot for Cady to take this opportunity to be a mole and spy on them. Eventually Cady learns about the "Burn Book"; a book the Plastics have created sporting photos and nasty comments and rumors about fellow students and even teachers. Soon, Cady finds herself stuck in the middle of a plan to use the Burn Book against Regina, and in the process finds that she may very well be turning into a mean girl herself. That's one of the great things about this movie, however, is that basically everyone in it is mean in their own way, when the title along with the poster pretty much points out the Plastics, so we are very ready to presume that they are the bullyish focus of the film. Following what was said about 'Clueless', once again, don't judge this one by its cover. The film's great cast extends beyond everyone already mentioned. We can also find some likable funny people among the adults, who mainly include Tina Fey and Ms. Norbury, Tim Meadows as Mr. Duvall, and Amy Poehler as Regina's Mom. Tina Fey also happened to do the writing for this one, based partially on Rosalind Wiseman's self-help book, 'Queen Bees and Wannabes'. Although the main focus here is very obviously on high school girls and how they act towards each other, I find this one very easy to watch in its overall hilarity. Truth be told, this one carries a lot of laugh out loud moments, and tends to carry a valuable lesson about the dangers of popularity. Unlike a lot of teen movies that are about wanting to be popular, this one tells more of a story about accidentally becoming popular, and having the right mindset to handle one's popularity appropriately. This really is a solid film, and it's kind of a shame that it's the last time Tina Fey cranked out a screenplay. She did an awesome job here, and I'd love to see more.  In honor of Valentines Month, I thought I'd do something a little bit special and feature a few movies I tend to enjoy with solid female leads. Further to that, each of these is considered a "Teen Movie", so there's always a coming of age aspect to them, from the women's perspective. First up, we have 1995's 'Clueless'; a film that I completely ignored back in the day, considering it "far too girly" - how immature I was.
Fast-forward a few years, however, and I actually watch it, developing a newfound respect for it. This is one of the prime examples I can think of when it comes to not judging a movie by its cover. Just to add a twist of class to it as well, this is also loosely based on Jane Austin's 'Emma', originally published in 1851. So it's like, totally one of those modern take flicks. We are introduced to socially popular material girl, Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone). She lives in California with her wealthy and successful father, Mel (Dan Hedaya), who we soon learn encourages Cher's success by manipulation when she shows him her grades. Cher sees herself as a matchmaker, and when she successfully hooks up a couple of her teachers, Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) and Miss Gueist (Twink Caplan), she continues to fancy herself the expert and tries to play "Cupid" for several other people, believing she knows what's best for everyone, and further considering these hook-ups "good deeds". Meanwhile, Cher's ex-stepbrother, Josh (Paul Rudd) visits during a college break. The two bicker over things like his idealism and her personality, but do so in a playful way. The thing is, Cher doesn't quite understand that some things Josh has to say about her may just be more accurate than not. This is more or less concluded when a new girl named Tai (Brittany Murphy) comes to the school, and Cher takes her on as a project, along with the help of her best friend, Dionne (Stacey Dash) assuming that they're helping her with her popularity. The thing is, it ends up working too well, and eventually Cher begins to question her place in the chain of popularity, along with her attitude and feelings towards certain people in her life. I think what I like best about this movie is that, if you haven't seen it before, it ends up taking you by surprise. This is a film that, on the surface, looks like it's just going to be about a handful of popular girls doing popular girl stereotype things. It pretty much starts out as one might imagine. The thing is, the film turns the tables on the viewer a little by portraying things like Cher not just being some blonde stereotype, she's actually pretty clever about certain things. Add to that the fact that we have a female lead whose love life isn't the focus of the film. The focus of the film, relationship-wise, has more to do with the side characters while she's in the middle of it all. It all becomes a learning experience for her, instead of just having her as some match-making hero. I'm not gonna lie, this never really dragged me into its cult following, but it does tend to be one I sort of admire from afar. I respect this movie and the story it tells, and I do love the way it surprises the viewer by giving us what we fear it might be, followed by something that catches you a little off-guard. It's a bit of a 50/50 film in that sense, at least from my perspective. I could easily see this as a go-to for a "feel-good" movie, and it certainly has developed a following over the years. It has been dubbed by some to be one of the best teen movies of all time, and it has gone on to be considered a classic of sorts. I would extend that to include 90's movies in general, as it's very representative of the era it was released - right in the middle, with a 1995 release date. This one is easily accessible through various streaming services, so don't let the movie poster deter you from what could be a pretty solid viewing experience like I did for so long. |
Categories
All
Archives
September 2022
|
RSS Feed