Adaptation Gone Wild

Good morning Consumers, this is Please Consume, the movie newsletter features scenes from Phantom Thread and Beavis & Butthead do America! Just how PTA always imagined.

The Holdovers is out.

And guess what? It rocks.

So much so that it inspired us to look at some of our favorite schoolhouse movies.

Tyler gives us his pick that’s a twist on a classic Shakespeare play…

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Written by Tyler Clark

As we continue through school movies I want to talk about my favorite insane subgenre, the modern literary adaptation for teens. I’m talking about She's All That, Clueless, Cruel Intentions, and, of course, today's movie 10 Things I Hate About You.

Adaptation Gone Wild

As already mentioned, this is an adaptation of classical literature. In this case, it's an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s "The Taming of the Shrew.”

While they do share a basic premise — a father who will not allow his daughter to get romantically involved with a man until her older, more grizzled sister is betrothed, thus leading suitors to hire a trickster to woo the older sister — thankfully, that is where the similarities end, save for some nice literary nods. The book goes on to become a dark "comedy" in which the trickster breaks the oldest daughter's spirit until she is subservient to him.

In 10 Things I Hate About You they just go to prom.

Okay, so that is pretty reductive towards this wonderful movie. It actually takes the clever approach of making the trickster, played by the forever brilliant Heath Ledger, the one who actually changes. You see, the shrillness of "the shrew" in this, played by Julia Stiles, comes from her '90s alt punk feminist vibe, and he comes towards her and learns the value of her ways.

It’s a nice way to give a little redemption to this classic, if not problematic, story.

High School Melodrama

I have a real soft spot in my heart for these types of movies. I can’t entirely tell you why, but I do. I love the painfully specific music, outfits, and performances.

I adore any story in which you have to turn your brain off to the consequences of what will inevitably happen to our leads once the movie ends (a hallmark for teen comedies).

But I think the thing that draws me to these movies is the sweeping emotion. I love a good melodrama. It’s a term that is often used pejoratively, but for my money, there is nothing better than big emotional responses from people that don’t match the scale of the situation but work to a larger ecstatic truth.

Movies like Edge of Seventeen would comment more on the reason behind those emotional responses and help us learn how to understand those responses, but sometimes you just need some popcorn, tea, and a warm blanket so you can connect to broad comedy and broader emotions that make you believe in the doomed love that is a high school romance.

Footnote

Did Christopher Nolan just watch this movie for inspiration right before casting his movies? Between JGL, Heath Ledger, and David Krumholtz, it feels undeniable.

Still waiting on that Julia Stiles’ dead wife part, but I digress.

Today’s Scene