Summary
He’s All That. He’s really not. A shallow gender-swapped remake of the film She’s All That.
This review of the Netflix film He’s All That contains major spoilers.
This film is a gender-swapped remake of the film She’s All That. Starring Addison Rae, Tanner Buchanan, Madison Pettis, Rachael Leigh Cook, Peyton Meyer, and Matthew Lillard, this film is a cute, simple, fun watch.
With a lot of focus being on being popular and Instagram/TikTok famous, this rom-com is aimed at the younger generation. Although it would be interesting to watch if you want an insight into the new Insta-perfect need for online fame world and the pressure that young people are going through.
The storyline is recognizable and nothing new. As Netflix’s He’s All That goes on, you can see a lot of other themes and traits taken from other romantic comedy films/television shows. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there is comfort in the familiar. Although it can feel messy, a lot of themes jump around in a small space of time, when they could have had more development.
Basically, we have a young female influencer, Pagett, who goes viral for all the wrong reasons, getting revenge on her ex and getting her sponsorship back by taking a geeky, nerdy, anti-social kid and turning him into a prom king. This doesn’t come easy so she has to trick him into following her plan. Lying, betting, and deceiving, they fall for one another which brings conflict.
The acting isn’t totally terrible, but a lot of the cast didn’t have much chemistry. A lot of scenes felt forced and I can imagine the director saying “that’ll do”. A lot of the “falling-in-love” scenes were less than charming, coming across as corny and many made me cringe. The best bits are with Kourtney Kardashian playing her sponsor and Matthew Lillard dancing at the prom.
Pagett has one moment with her mother where she reflects on why she is an influencer. That she had convinced herself that she cared about her followers, but really it was for money and popularity and feels like she has lost her true self. A lot of the film reflects and makes comments on the influencer, live-stream life; that you’re missing out on what’s in front of you when you’re constantly online. At the prom Pagett denies the crown, after playing a slideshow of how her online self is all pretend. We begin to feel that she has realized there is more to life than showing off online. But that isn’t true, even at the end, they’re still live-streaming, so even though it is a “happy” ending I don’t feel like any lessons were learned or anything really changed.
One thing I did love was the party name “drop it like F-Scott ” which I might have to steal for my 30th next year! You’ll like this film if you like films such as John Tucker Must Die, It’s a boy, girl thing, A Cinderella Story and How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days but I do think those films are a lot better so maybe re-watch one of those instead.
What do you think of the Netflix film He’s All That? Comment below.
