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Somehow over the last twelve years, while I remembered enjoying the movie, and the party scenes, and the refreshing assumption that teens can be smart even when they're being stupid and/or shallow (because hey, teenagers), I forgot how flat-out funny 10 Things I Hate About You is.
I was in the teen movie target demographic when it was released (I was 17 in 1999), but so far as I can recall, the only teen movies* I actually saw in high school were Clueless and 10 Things. Possibly both were on the recommendation of my little sister, who liked the teen movie genre a lot more than my friends and I did. I generally saw movies with people, which meant I generally saw dramas with my parents or action movies with my friends. For a while, Cat, Susan and I even had a Bad Action Movie Night tradition, which produced much hilarity at the expense of films like Mortal Kombat or various Highlander sequels, though we did also watch some decent action movies for variety's sake.
...No, wait, I did see a third teen movie. The one with... a brown-haired girl and that annoying guy who dated and/or married Sarah Michelle Gellar. She's All That, maybe? One of those dumb nerd-girl-cleans-up-nice plots. Oh, what is his name. Freddie something or other. Anyway, that one was just a brainless way to kill two hours, as you can tell by my near complete inability to remember it. 10 Things I Hate About You is not brainless. Fluffy, sure, but there's an actual story and charm to it.
All of which is by way of leading to this: Allison Janney is a treasure. :-)
*(I also saw The Faculty, which, though it purports to be a horror movie, actually plays brilliantly when viewed as a comedy -- specifically a teen movie farce in which people happen to die in stupidly unbelievable ways. In fact, I dare you to take the doing-drugs-proves-you're-human plot twist seriously. But that is extremely tangential to this post.)
I was in the teen movie target demographic when it was released (I was 17 in 1999), but so far as I can recall, the only teen movies* I actually saw in high school were Clueless and 10 Things. Possibly both were on the recommendation of my little sister, who liked the teen movie genre a lot more than my friends and I did. I generally saw movies with people, which meant I generally saw dramas with my parents or action movies with my friends. For a while, Cat, Susan and I even had a Bad Action Movie Night tradition, which produced much hilarity at the expense of films like Mortal Kombat or various Highlander sequels, though we did also watch some decent action movies for variety's sake.
...No, wait, I did see a third teen movie. The one with... a brown-haired girl and that annoying guy who dated and/or married Sarah Michelle Gellar. She's All That, maybe? One of those dumb nerd-girl-cleans-up-nice plots. Oh, what is his name. Freddie something or other. Anyway, that one was just a brainless way to kill two hours, as you can tell by my near complete inability to remember it. 10 Things I Hate About You is not brainless. Fluffy, sure, but there's an actual story and charm to it.
All of which is by way of leading to this: Allison Janney is a treasure. :-)
*(I also saw The Faculty, which, though it purports to be a horror movie, actually plays brilliantly when viewed as a comedy -- specifically a teen movie farce in which people happen to die in stupidly unbelievable ways. In fact, I dare you to take the doing-drugs-proves-you're-human plot twist seriously. But that is extremely tangential to this post.)
