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He's All That
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Wikipedia article
'He's All That' is a 2021 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Mark Waters, from a screenplay by R. Lee Fleming Jr. The film is a gender-swapped remake of the 1999 film 'She's All That', which was a modern adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play 'Pygmalion' and George Cukor's 1964 film 'My Fair Lady'. It stars Addison Rae, Tanner Buchanan, Madison Pettis, and Peyton Meyer, as well as Rachael Leigh Cook and Matthew Lillard, who starred in 'She's All That', appearing in different roles.
Talks for a remake of 'She's All That' began in September 2020, with Waters to direct, Fleming Jr. set to return as the film's screenwriter, and Rae to star. Principal photography began in December 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
'He's All That' had its world premiere at the NeueHouse in Hollywood, California on August 25, 2021, before debuting on Netflix on August 27, 2021. The film received generally negative reviews.
Plot
Padgett Sawyer is a TikTok influencer in her final year of high school who lives with her divorced mother, a local nurse, although she pretends to live in an upscale condo in order to hide her real living conditions from her followers and sponsors. One day, Padgett discovers that her boyfriend, influencer and aspiring hip hop artist Jordan Van Draanen, ditched her for a backup dancer, and finds herself being humiliated when a live stream of her outburst results in her loss of followers and sponsorship deals.
To redeem herself, she accepts a bet to turn the school's least popular young man, Cameron Kweller, an antisocial photography student, into prom king. Despite his indifference towards her, Padgett continues with the bet. She gains information about him from his younger sister Brin, and to become closer, begins taking horse riding lessons with him. Over time, while keeping her word on the bet, Padgett begins to bond more with Cameron and discovers that he and his younger sister lost their mother years ago and that they live with their grandmother while their father is residing in Sweden. Padgett fixes up Cameron's appearance and attire, and tries expanding his social interactions at her friend Quinn's party, where he saves her from suffering humiliation when Jordan appears with his date.
At Padgett's friend Alden's 'Great Gatsby'-themed birthday party, Cameron gets into a fight with Jordan when he tries to get sexual with Brin, and his mother's camera is ruined in the process, causing him to leave the party in a rage despite Padgett's attempts to console him, causing her to regret following through with the bet, but she does not back down from the bet. The next day, Alden turns on Padgett and reveals her plot to become prom queen alongside Jordan, revealing her true colors and that she is responsible for live-streaming Padgett's outburst. Padgett begins to fall for Cameron but she is afraid to express her feelings after she kisses him. When Brin finds out that Padgett kissed Cameron, she advises him to ask her to prom. In an attempt to ensure Padgett's loss, Alden exposes the bet she made with Padgett, which makes Cameron, who now believes that Padgett only loved him because of the bet, angry. On the day of the prom, Padgett's mother wants her to still go and tells her to be the person shes always been and not the person who she was before as a social influencer.
Cameron refuses to go to prom but Brin, realizing that her older brother has been smiling for the first time ever since their mother's death and Padgett came into his life, persuades him to go. He doesn't show up and Padgett declines her role as Prom Queen. Padgett then meets with Cameron outside the school riding on a horse and kisses him after apologizing. Following the events after the prom, Padgett gains her fan following back and takes her social media influencing in a new direction, by travelling to various different destinations across the world alongside Cameron, now her devoted boyfriend.
Cast
* Addison Rae as Padgett Sawyer, a social media influencer who is hiding the fact that she is poor from her affluent high school
* Tanner Buchanan as Cameron Kweller, an anti-social rebel who likes to take photographs
* Madison Pettis as Alden Pierce, Padgett's affluent and social status-aware best friend, later rival
* Peyton Meyer as Jordan Van Draanen, Padgett's ex boyfriend who is a hip-hop artist and also a social media influencer
* Rachael Leigh Cook as Anna Sawyer, Padgett's mother who works as a nurse. Cook returns from 'She's All That', in a different role, having originally played Laney Boggs.
* Matthew Lillard as Principal Bosch, the school's principal. Lillard returns from 'She's All That', in a different role, having originally played Brock Hudson.
* Isabella Crovetti as Brin Kweller, Cameron's popularity-seeking younger sister
* Myra Molloy as Quinn, Padgett's other best friend, who is more supportive of her than Alden is. She and Nisha go to prom together.
* Annie Jacob as Nisha, Cameron's best and only friend
* Kourtney Kardashian as Jessica Miles Torres, who sponsors Padgett on social media
* Vanessa Dubasso as Aniston, a dancer that Jordan becomes involved with
* Heather Ann Gottlieb as Celeste, a rebel who despises the high school experience even more than Cameron does
* Romel De Silva as Sebastian Woo, a student who excels in science
* Andrew Matarazzo as Jordan's friend Logan
* Dominic Goodman as Jordan's friend Track
* Jill Basey as Grandma, Cameron and Brin's grandmother who has taken them in to live with her
* Evan Fields as Prom DJ Jamal, the prom's DJ
Production
In September 2020, a gender swapped remake of 'She's All That' was announced by Miramax titled 'He's All That', with Mark Waters to direct, original screenwriter R. Lee Fleming Jr. to write, and Addison Rae to star. Tanner Buchanan had also been cast, along with Myra Molloy, Madison Pettis, Peyton Meyer, Isabella Crovetti, and Annie Jacob.
In December 2020, Rachael Leigh Cook joined the cast to portray Rae's character's mother. It was confirmed Cook's character is not related to her original character. Andrew Matarazzo, Vanessa Dubasso, Brian Torres, Romel De Silva, Dominic Goodman, Ryan Hollis, and Tiffany Simon also joined the production.
Filming took place at Union Station, Los Angeles, in December 2020. The city was criticized for its decision to close a COVID-19 testing site to accommodate the filmmakers. The decision was reversed and the testing site was able to continue working while the filming took place. In August 2021, the song "Kiss Me" was covered by Cyn for the film's soundtrack.
Soundtrack
'List of songs featured in 'He's All That'
Release
'He's All That' had its world premiere at the NeueHouse in Hollywood, California on August 25, 2021, before it was released on August 27, 2021, by Netflix. According to Netflix, it was the number one film on their service that week.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 30% based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average rating of 4/10. The website's critics consensus read, "Hobbled by a lack of chemistry between its stars, 'He's All That' comes up short on numerous opportunities to improve upon its gender-swapped source material." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100 based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Courtney Howard of 'Variety' said "'He's All That' makes some smart alterations to the original despite mimeographing the structure, and strikes a benevolent balance between old and new with a light sprinkling of references. However, there are many more maddeningly underwhelming elements." ABC News' Peter Travers gave a negative review, saying "manufactured for the 'Kissing Booth' crowd, this gender-swapped, TikTok-friendly update of the 1999 teen hit sounds awful and it often is, but enough charm pokes through the cracks to sucker anyone who ever fell for a makeover fable." Robyn Bahr of 'The Hollywood Reporter' wrote: "'He's All That' may be a flattened reflection of its predecessor, but both films are charming enough to get away with about one anal sex innuendo joke apiece" and that the film "is really no worse than the first film."
Nell Minow, writing for 'RogerEbert.com', was more positive in her review of the film, giving it a score of 3 out of 4 stars. She wrote: "sweet little end of summer sorbet with appealing young performers and a script that refreshes the original without overdoing it." Michael Ordoa of the 'Los Angeles Times' gave a mostly positive review by stating "You'll be pleased to discover the entertaining remake has its charms; it actually is all that, for the most part."
References
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