She's All That Turns 20 (And Why The Film IS Problematic Today)

When an article starts with, "I personally, was devastated to rewatch Britney Spears' Crossroads and find that it wasn't actually the coming-of-age story our generation needed, " that is the go ahead to tune out.

I am not a fan of She's All That and of course the plot is problematic these days, when everyone is so PC.

As the user above said, it isn't like this movie was some deep movie. It was a by the numbers teen dramedy.

Does anybody remember Soul Man (1986)? The movie that had C. Thomas Howell in black face.

I never realized that She's All That was considered a classic back in the 1990's. 

The whole article being based on a mediocre teen movie and why it is "problematic" today is ridiculous. Who cares about She's All That? Seriously.

I know. 

I just wanted everyone to know this movie exists. 

If someone is going to bring up a movie that might be seen as problematic today, then they should bring up Sixteen Candles.

But my point is that Sixteen Candles didn't have a short shelf life. Unless I am out of the loop, I thought that Sixteen Candles was considered a teen movie classic.

The Breakfast Club?

I guess what I am trying to say is that Sixteen Candles was a big deal at the time. 

If the article was talking about American Pie, then that would make sense. American Pie was a huge deal when it came out, She's All That was not. At least not in my memory.

Eh, The Breakfast Club is talked about quite a bit and is often referenced in pop culture. Also, The Breakfast Club in particular you will see on pretty much every list of the Top 20 best teen movies ever made. On ranker.com for example (which is voted on by the general public), The Breakfast Club is #1. With Sixteen Candles at #8.

www.ranker.com/list/best-teen-movies-of-all-time/all-genre-movies-lists

I'd say Fright Night and Breakfast Club are talked about equally.

Of course Back to the Future is talked about more, as that is flat out classic regardless of the genre.

I think imdb ratings can be used to show how popular a movie was and still is by looking at it's rating and number of votes.

Sixteen Candles (90,000 votes), The Breakfast Club (312,000 votes) etc. they all have a positive rating, while She's All That only has a 5.9/10.

I would say it's "problematic" in the same way that the somewhat recent "Don't Judge Me Challenge" was problematic. (For those of you that missed that one, that's where teenagers would make themselves look ugly using makeup, act like dorks in front of the camera, and then edit to them looking like preening, plastic models.)

The attempted message is "Don't judge a book by its cover." which is not a bad thing but the message actually sent is "Don't judge a book by its cover because the cover is just covered with dirt and muck and when you wipe all that off, the cover looks damn good." It's a poor way to send a positive message.

She's All That is essentially the same sort of artificial ugly duckling story and it's the blackface equivalent for depicting an unattractive person. It's a complete caricature of reality. But that's Hollywood for you, especially when it comes to teen movies, so it's just something you kind of accept. The big problem I have with stories like this is that while they are attempting to say "Looks don't matter, it's what's inside that counts." what I see and hear is "Don't judge because they might get hot in the future." which is just such a shallow way to view the world and a botched way to tell a story pretending to have some heart.

Why did you bold that particular line for? Random. And who considers that movie a classic?

Well I guess it could be a classic in a way. A classic cast of actors. Also a classic example of how not to write a movie.