In recent years, the teen romantic comedy, a genre largely associated with the 90s, has been increasingly re-examined through the lens of contemporary social norms. The genre itself, or at least the popularized notions of love and relationships it often portrays, is being critically assessed. Online, you’ll find numerous articles dissecting the presence of Stockholm syndrome, identifying abusers, and pointing out co-dependent partnerships among beloved on-screen couples. It’s no surprise that this re-evaluation sometimes leads to remakes. There was a faint hope that “He’s All That” would add depth to familiar character archetypes and infuse the interactions of teenagers with the kind of awareness cultivated in Netflix’s “Sex Education.” Alas, that wasn’t the case.
Addison Rae as Padgett in “He’s All That”
The remake flips the script on gender roles: Padgett Sawyer (played by Addison Rae, who boasts more followers than the population of Italy), the school’s star and TikTok sensation, decides to repair her reputation and regain brand contracts after a breakup and a live-streamed humiliation. To do this, she and her friends choose a reclusive loner (Tanner Buchanan) whom she will transform into an idol and the king of the upcoming prom. The business project quickly turns into a whirlwind romance and a re-evaluation of life priorities.
Addison Rae as Padgett in “He’s All That”
From Stage to Screen: A Tangled Web of Inspiration
“She’s All That” was loosely adapted from Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion,” a common practice in the 90s, as seen with “Clueless,” a modified version of Jane Austen’s “Emma.” However, the Netflix remake doesn’t rewrite the literary source material (which itself was inspired by ancient Greek myth) in a new way, but rather the script of the original film – leading to a game of telephone gone awry.
The Perils of Boomer Nostalgia
The decision to involve the writers of the 1998 rom-com, screenwriter R. Lee Fleming and director Mark Waters, proved to be a misstep. Instead of a lighthearted and naive evening’s entertainment, they filled the film with boomer-esque grumbling about the dangers of social media, addiction to likes, and internet fakes. You don’t need to be on TikTok to understand that Gen Z is vastly different from previous generations. Today’s students experience their lives in the media space in a completely different way: they openly share experiences that others were once afraid to discuss even with close friends.
Addison Rae as Padgett in “He’s All That”
Deconstructing the “Villain”
Initially, “He’s All That” seems to “redeem” Taylor Vaughan, the original’s main antagonist. Padgett is placed in the role of the self-absorbed drama queen and most popular girl in school, complete with the outfits and status. The “rich people also cry” concept deflates almost immediately, providing the heroine with motivations. The illusion of prosperity online is the flip side of the real situation, where the schoolgirl gives all her earnings to her nurse mother for household needs (played by Rachael Leigh Cook, the original Laney Boggs), and outside the blogger’s room, their home is hardly suitable for live broadcasts.
Nostalgia vs. Stale Tropes
“She’s All That” is a cult film: Laney’s walk down the stairs to “Kiss Me” and the prom dances have spawned parodies, memes, imitations, and adoration. Of course, today the film looks fragmented, rough, and naive, but it hasn’t lost its cozy charm for a second: the concentration of genre ideology in each frame is unlikely to leave indifferent those who watched the film in the evenings after school. “He’s All That” doesn’t try to play with or interpret the tested patterns, but simply fills the runtime with clichés, and not the most refined ones (for example, throwing manure in a stable – a gag worthy of a romantic comedy).
Addison Rae as Padgett in “He’s All That”
Casting Conundrums and Audience Disappointment
Newcomer Addison Rae enthusiastically shares in interviews how happy she is to play the lead role in the remake of her favorite film – TikTok stars are now being taken seriously not only by brands but also by content creators. But, alas, if you didn’t know that the whole enterprise was conceived for Rae (and the plot with the blogger boyfriend is borrowed from her biography), it might seem that the main mistake of the rom-com happened at the casting stage. Compared to her partner Tanner Buchanan (“Cobra Kai”), Padgett looks, alas, rather prosaic on screen – hopefully, we will avoid the curse of subscribers for such assessments. However, it seems that Addison’s fans were also dissatisfied with the film: the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes barely reaches 30% freshness.
The saddest thing is that the platform is completely indifferent to the quality of the content produced – it is enough that an audience of 80 million subscribes to the streaming service to watch Rae’s debut, who moved from the smartphone screen to the laptop screen. And therefore, in the finale, you can quite shamelessly seat the newly-minted handsome man on a horse and arm the high school knight with pathetic words about love. What once could have caused affection with a certain presentation, now turns into absolute bewilderment. Perhaps not all rom-coms need remakes – and even quotes and cameos (not only Rachael Leigh Cook, but also Matthew Lillard) do not cause bouts of nostalgia.