An absolute teen classic. The Breakfast Club of the nineties!

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2010)

Many words have been used to describe 10 Things I Hate About You. Not all good. I've seen predictable, fun, stereotypical, touching and so on. All of these might be true but the key to the film is that it will endear itself to you. In the decade since I saw it for the first time I have likely seen it dozens of times and every time I simply fall in love with it all over again. The fact that it is a brilliantly clever retelling of Shakespeare's Taming of The Shrew only helps solidify it as a really fun, and better than other teen type flicks of the nineties or any other decade. The characters make this film what it is. Fun loving, over the top, and a very diverse group of people that everyone will easily find a favourite or more than one favourite character. The cast works so well together, and the story moves at such a perfectly entertaining and hilarious pace that you will just enjoy every minute. The film has the demographic of mid to late teens in mind certainly but it doesn't try and treat the audience like kids. The film has plenty of gross out humour, tastefully used of course, and a crass feel to it but some sort of life lesson about romance and growing up is firmly in place.
The late Heath Ledger became a household name as the bad boy Patrick Verona with a heart of gold. Ledger is just absolutely charismatic in his role and is enough to make guys high five and girls swoon. I actually consider this character and Ledger's performance to be probably one of my favourite. Absolutely holding her own and matching Ledger's Verona shot for shot is the amazing Julia Stiles who gives probably her best performance or close to it as the vivacious, tempestuous Kat Stratford. Misunderstood, catty, angsty, brutally sarcastic and downright hilarious Stiles plays a strong willed, if not slightly flawed teenage girl who goes through a lot of growing up as a lot of the characters do. Stiles and Ledger are absolutely brilliant together and one of my all time favourite romantic comedy couples. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quiet and subtle and almost too adorable as Cam. Even though he isn't as bold and strong a character as some of the other he is easily the sweetest in the film and will be plenty of people's favourite. If Stiles is the perfect match with Ledger then the perfect match for Gordon-Levitt would be the equally as sweet Larisa Oleynik. She is first presented as extremely vapid and shallow but quickly gets far more depth and gets to grow up a lot in the film. She learns some valuable lessons and her and Stiles are terrific together as siblings. David Krumholtz is deliciously geeky as Cam's new best friend Michael. He's downright hilarious and has some truly amazing moments and gets to have some great romance in the end as well. Andrew Keegan is hilarious as the conceited teen model Joey and the object of Bianca's (Oleynik) affection...at first. He is a bit of a villain to the story but certainly never much of a challenge to anyone as he gets shown up time and time again. And finally the absolutely amazing and hilarious Larry Miller who plays Stiles and Oleynik's insanely over protective father. He is one of my favourite Dad's and is absolutely perfect. I will forever remember him in this role.
This cast just works so amazingly well together and everyone fits these perfect roles and brings them to life. Director Gil Junger has a ton of experience if not almost entirely from Television but in this case this isn't a bad thing whatsoever. He obviously has a great grasp on humour and knows how to tell a story. The cast works so well together and Junger should be given credit for putting them together. The writing team of Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah Lutz have gone on to write some incredibly fun scripts including Legally Blonde, The House Bunny, and She's The Man to name three of my favourite. They're stories are simply fun and hugely entertaining but I'm not sure they've done anything that meets the level of this absolute classic. It is one of my all time favourites and is fun from beginning to end. 9/10