He's All That | I didn't not like it?

Rating: 3/5

This movie may get bad ratings, but people will be watching.

Finally done with first-year medical school exams, I sat down to binge She's All That and He's All That in a row. I actually didn't love the 1999 classic, She's All That, mostly just because it seemed incomplete. I mean, what exactly was Zach's plotline? Why did he decide to show up to graduation naked? Laney's plotline was at least fun, if at times not convincing, but it's a cute high school rom-com, and me being me, I gobbled it up. 

A day after, I watched 2021's modern gender-flipped remake starring non-other than the gorgeous (I mean that non-ironically, I actually think she's beautiful) Addison Rae, a famous Tiktoker, pop singer, and now actress.

Let's start with the positives. Addison Rae fits this role like a glove. She plays a glamorous social media influencer with a huge following whose life goal is to give people makeovers. When I was watching the movie, a huge part of my enjoyment was how well Addison played the Malibu barbie character. It makes sense, because she's practically playing herself! I laughed out loud when, after bringing her cheating boyfriend croquembouche, she calls him a croquendouche 😂

I also loved all the dramatic social media/technology scenes in this movie. From the meme of the 'bubble girl', to Kourtney Kardashian hilariously playing a social media brand executive of some sorts, and characters having phones out and up the whole movie, it was fun. It's satirical and entertaining, but it's also not one of those movies with the message of "Put down your phone and experience real life" that Gen Z are tired of hearing. Rather, the message seems to be "Social media is great but can be harmful and damage your self-esteem".

Let's talk about some of the misses. Padgett Sawyer (Addison Rae's character) is keeping a secret that she is "poor" from her rich preppy schoolmates. Later her frenemy forces her to fess up and she admits she's "poor". In my opinion, it would have been more funny if she admitted that she was "middle class", because first of all, she is, and second of all, to show just how these rich teenagers are so out of touch that middle class is poor to them. I picture in my brain Addison Rae dejectedly professing "I'm middle-class, okay!"

 

Another miss was a weird scene in which the love interest Cameron tries to tell Padget to take off her makeup and not hide her truth or some shit (okay, fine, I'm paraphrasing). Um...what? Are we not over this trend of shaming women for their makeup? Cameron proceeds to wipe off Padget's lipstick, but thankfully she stops him before he takes off those gorgeous fake lashes, and thank god! It seems this "No makeup be natural" message was dropped later though as Padget appears at the end of the movie in a full face of makeup, happy and healthy while traveling with Cameron.

Moreover, the romantic scenes were totally hit and miss, but maybe I would've appreciated it more if I was 3 years younger. There are also some attempts to give the characters some depth; Cameron is apparently antagonistic and angsty and has a terrible haircut because ever since his mom died, he hasn't been the same. Similarly, Padget is a tragic and stressed middle-class student in a school full of rich mean kids with a single parent who struggles to pay the bills. It's not that these are not real-world issues, it's just that they're brushed over once or twice and not given any real substance. 

So why am I writing this multi-paragraph review about this Netflix rom-com and pointing out these flaws that I was pretty much expecting? It's because I actually liked it! I got what I wanted out of it; it was fun, and I see a lot of potential in the contemporary rom-com template if a little more effort is put in. And I know the critics are trashing this movie, but I also know that won't stop people from watching it. Maybe we'll even get three parts of it like The Kissing Booth (I hope not but who knows ?)

So that's what I thought! Have you seen this movie? What did you think?

Thanks,

Yomna