He’s All That
So, Netflix released a follow up to the 1999 film, She’s All That, with their aptly titled, He’s All That. If you’ve seen the original movie then you’ll remember the makeover plotline common in late 90’s and early, to even late, 2000’s romantic comedies. This is when the main character or love interest is given a makeover (oftentimes this means just removing eyeglasses and letting their hair down) in order to be seen as attractive to the audience and protagonist/love interest.
He’s All That follows Padgett (Addison Rae) as she tries to broadcast her life on social media and become prom queen -- but first she needs a date! You see, Padgett has just caught her popular boyfriend cheating on her during an Instagram Live, and due to her hysterical reaction she lost followers. This means her chances of climbing the social ladder higher and winning prom queen have just been hindered. Oh no! Enter Cameron (Tanner Buchanan) who is a “loser” with a camera, greasy hair, and an antisocial personality. He doesn’t even have a social media account. Yikes! Padgett’s friend proposes a bet. If Padgett can make Cameron prom king material then Padgett wins, but if she loses she gets a lame tattoo.
See, the thing about this movie is that nothing makes sense. Padgett is already popular when we are introduced to her and relatively well liked. She has a large social media following and makes money from donations on her live streams. The only thing “wrong” with her is that her mother is a nurse...and this somehow means she is poor? She lives in a reasonably sized house, too. Yes, her friends are wealthy, but I fail to see why this is even a conflict in the film when the larger one should have been that social media rules her life. I mean, I don’t care if people live and breathe their social accounts, but I think the film missed a logical point that could have been made. The younger generation is incredibly entangled in their own online realities.
Subsequently, Cameron is considered weird because he rejects social media until he falls for Padgett. In the beginning he comments on her obsession with sharing her entire life and calls it “culty”. This makes sense in juxtaposition to Padgett, but then it is quickly forgotten and he is fine with her broadcasting their lives online at the end of the film.
After a quick search online, I found that R. Lee Fleming Jr, the writer of She’s All That actually wrote He’s All That as well. Nevermind, that he is now a middle aged man and can relate to a teenager about as well as a duck can relate to a dog. Is that mean? This movie makes me mean. Usually, I like to break a review into three parts: pros, cons, and closing thoughts, but it’s been a smidge difficult to create another positive other than “it made me laugh, and I don’t think it was on purpose.” The acting felt like a high school play and the script felt like a fifty year old man wrote it while pretending to be 15.
I could go on for days about the mess that this movie ultimately is, but I think you get the picture. Do I recommend it? If you’re a huge fan of Addison Rae then I can see you enjoying this movie.