I love high school romantic comedies, and I miss them with every fiber of my being. John Hughes left a legacy with movies like The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles in the ’80s—and there was a resurgence in the ’90s with films like She’s All That. We even had Mean Girls in the early 2000s.
But it seems I’m not alone in having this hole in my heart. Over the weekend, writer Alanna Bennett started a discussion, down to the details, about why the perfect example of the genre, 10 Things I Hate About You, is such a truly good movie.
10 Things I Hate About You had no right to jam as hard as it does. It’s a perfect movie. Practically every scene, every background moment slaps. How did they do that.
— Alanna @ SDCC (@AlannaBennett) July 14, 2018
(I mean, there are a bunch of smaller answers to why it rocks so hard, but the biggest answer is TALENT ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE that worked well in a way that doesn’t always happen)
— Alanna @ SDCC (@AlannaBennett) July 14, 2018
10 Things I Hate About You, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew, came out in 1999. It stars an adorable young Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high school boy trying to get the father of Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), a girl he likes, to relax his rules on his daughters dating. He attempts this by convincing a bad boy (Heath Ledger) to pursue Bianca’s uber-feminist older sister, Kat (Julia Stiles). (If you haven’t seen it, it’s really really good.)
Fans engaged with Bennett, talking about exactly which of the film’s elements combine to make it such an amazing experience. Some mentioned Kat’s ahead-of-her-time realness.
Personal theory on why that movie works: because the Julia Stiles character is an actual person who existed in 1999 and the central conceit seems about right (people wouldn’t want to date her and she’s fine with that)
— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) July 14, 2018
And it’s still relevant. pic.twitter.com/1J0TuBBN1C
— Amber Wingfield (@AWingfieldSvcs) July 14, 2018
People shared lots of love for background characters, like teachers and the father of Kat and her sister Bianca.
Killer sdtk- also… pic.twitter.com/BKUWrRvEjj
— Kelso Norris (@KelsoJean) July 14, 2018
and let’s not forget Mr. Morgan pic.twitter.com/215kvF94xN
— R is alliterating like a beatnik (@revolutionarvie) July 15, 2018
The Dad. He rocks. pic.twitter.com/FFqxaqoaTi
— Ian Lamont (@MontDarjeeling) July 14, 2018
Naturally, people were obsessing with Heath Ledger himself, and his perfect moment of sending the marching band to play Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” and serenade Kat during soccer practice.
Also, so many grand and honest quotes. pic.twitter.com/WE4qhD73zS
— la Niña de los Gatos (@gabysm11) July 14, 2018
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” is one of THE CHEESIEST SONGS IN CREATION but Heath and that marching band made it into this fun sing-a-long bop!! What?? Amazing!
I miss Heath (sniff).
— Valerie Hawkins (@valsadie) July 14, 2018
The writers of the movie, Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah, even saw the Twitter love-fest!
Thank YOU, these movies are some of the ones that made me want to be a writer
— Alanna @ SDCC (@AlannaBennett) July 15, 2018
So I guess we don’t need new high school romantic comedies. We already have the perfect one. Case closed, heart full.