Not all it's cracked up to be

Rating: 4/10 (21 July 2001)

I remember when this movie came out and everyone thought it was the greatest thing...it just "spoke" to our generation so much. I never understood all that. Rather than appealing to audiences because it was interesting and made sense, it just seemed to me like it capitalized on every teenager's hidden fantasies about fitting in. Girls liked it because it let them imagine for a minute that they too could suddenly get the star quarterback or the standoffish rebel. And guys must have liked it because it let them think that dating them was the ultimate goal for every teenage girl, and girls would be willing to fundamentally change themselves to be with them. The message of this film is terrible for teenagers. It shows one guy who doesn't even notice the girl until she radically changes her appearance to fit into his own model of beauty, and another guy who shows his affection by being verbally insulting and abusive until the very end. I just don't understand what's so great about this movie.