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He’s All That is a remake with a twist on the popular 90’s Teen comedy She’s All That. The premise of a bet to turn a social pariah into a popular person is nothing new. The most popular classic example is the Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison film My Fair Lady, but He’s All That so very clearly pays all the homage to She’s All That that to call it by any other name would be ridiculous.
This time around, our main character Padgett Sawyer (Addison Rae of The Hype Life), is popular because of her social media status and her makeover project is social pariah Cameron Kweller (Tanner Buchanan of Cobra Kai). The makeover project is a bet between Padgett and one of her “best friends” Alden (Madison Pettis of Five Points) after Padgett’s semi-celebrity boyfriend Jordan (Peyton Meyer of Girl Meets World) is found cheating on her and caught on social media. In addition to this being a bet between friends, Padgett’s social media is her income which will pay her college. The incident of walking in on her boyfriend causes her to lose sponsors. So it is not just ego at play, but Padgett’s future. This update also makes the motivations feel slightly less cringe. Essentially all of the updates to the plot work and make the premise more current, relevant, and palatable.
For those completely unfamiliar with the 1999 version She’s All That, fear not, this film stands completely on its own as a fun, quirky, and relevant look at what popularity means from both the lens of high school and social media. Whether it is My Fair Lady, Trading Places, or She’s All That, all versions of the theme of popularity stem from the idea of social class standings and appearance. While it is not wholly original, every generation should have a film like this to keep reminding people what popularity can do to people and how appearance is valued regardless of how fake it is.
For those who have seen and enjoyed the original She’s All That, there are tons of homages sprinkled through the film and even two returning actors. The original star of She’s All That, Rachel Leigh Cook, returns as the mother of our main character Padgett. The other cast member from the original is Matthew Lillard, who this time around is the principal of the high school.
He’s All That has very tame sexual innuendos and situations, very little underage alcohol use (tastefully done), and is very light on violence (which is also tastefully done). There is some vulgarity but used very sparingly. You can tell that the filmmakers made this film to be impactful to younger audiences (teen to young adult) and because of that, I have to say that I totally approve it for that age group and older.
Check it out on Netflix Today!
And don’t forget to check out the intervew I did with some of the cast over on my YouTube or below:
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