"How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways."
March 31, 2019 3:46 PM Subscribe
In a noteworthy year for motion pictures, consider one movie that turns twenty today: 10 Things I Hate About You.
10 Things I Hate About You, a sly retelling of The Taming of The Shrew populated with so many stars in the making, gave us characters that didn't apologize for who they were, and misfits who were not uncool. Notable among the life lessons portrayed was a positive example of meaningful consent, and one memorable cover of Can't Take My Eyes Off You.
10 Things I Hate About You, a sly retelling of The Taming of The Shrew populated with so many stars in the making, gave us characters that didn't apologize for who they were, and misfits who were not uncool. Notable among the life lessons portrayed was a positive example of meaningful consent, and one memorable cover of Can't Take My Eyes Off You.
This was also discussed to some Fanfare.
posted by Margalo Epps at 4:57 PM on March 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Margalo Epps at 4:57 PM on March 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
So good and great soundtrack.
posted by gryphonlover at 5:01 PM on March 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by gryphonlover at 5:01 PM on March 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
10 Things I Hate About You captured a slice of late 1990s life in Seattle before it was gone.
posted by skycrashesdown at 5:05 PM on March 31, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by skycrashesdown at 5:05 PM on March 31, 2019 [8 favorites]
David Krumholtz Remembers Heath Ledger and the Rest of the 10 Things I Hate About You Cast: ‘We Laughed, We Partied, We Rapped’ (David Krumholtz, Vulture)
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:05 PM on March 31, 2019
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:05 PM on March 31, 2019
I love this film, and have re-watched it a couple of times because it's been on cable a ton in the last few months. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years! Makes me sad about Heath Ledger's passing all over again, though.
posted by TwoStride at 6:10 PM on March 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 6:10 PM on March 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
We rewatched this on Friday as it's one of my husband's faves. I gather he thinks of it as basically a documentary about me in high school, which is VERY flattering but wildly inaccurate. Being an angry man-hating teenage harridan had its moments, I will grant, but I was never tall, slim, beautiful, possessed of a cool car, welcome on a sports team, etc.
posted by potrzebie at 6:42 PM on March 31, 2019 [13 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 6:42 PM on March 31, 2019 [13 favorites]
I cannot remember which movie I saw in 1996 on my most awkward adolescent "date" where the guy she liked better and invited as well sat between us.
I remember "10 Things I Hate About You" as the movie, a few years later, whereupon I got to sit in the seat between my date and the guy who also showed up and wasn't getting it, and save her from some of his awkward pestering.
I'm still friends with the latter date. Not so much the former. I wonder why.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:44 PM on March 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
I remember "10 Things I Hate About You" as the movie, a few years later, whereupon I got to sit in the seat between my date and the guy who also showed up and wasn't getting it, and save her from some of his awkward pestering.
I'm still friends with the latter date. Not so much the former. I wonder why.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:44 PM on March 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
This was on heavy rotation on HBO the month my parents finally upgraded our cable to get ~a movie channel~ and I think my brother and I watched it about 1,000 times (and said “there’s Nigel with the BRIE” about 10,000 times). There are few things more charismatic than Heath Ledger in this movie. I was definitely not old or cool enough to appreciate the soundtrack at the time!
posted by sallybrown at 6:52 PM on March 31, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by sallybrown at 6:52 PM on March 31, 2019 [7 favorites]
Oh, I love this movie, and especially that scene, and I think of Ledger every time I hear that song.
posted by lazuli at 8:42 PM on March 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by lazuli at 8:42 PM on March 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
I love everything about this movie
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:48 PM on March 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:48 PM on March 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
One small joy of the movie is the fact that the ludicrous high school that is clearly some other building re-purposed by Hollywood... is in fact a real, though still kind of ludicrous, high school.
posted by tavella at 10:06 PM on March 31, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by tavella at 10:06 PM on March 31, 2019 [7 favorites]
I love this movie so much.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:16 PM on March 31, 2019
posted by ChuraChura at 10:16 PM on March 31, 2019
It was Heath Ledger's first really big movie role.
Of course, Julia Stiles' big break had come years earlier, when she showed up as a leet hax0r in Ghostwriter.
posted by automatronic at 3:54 AM on April 1, 2019 [7 favorites]
Of course, Julia Stiles' big break had come years earlier, when she showed up as a leet hax0r in Ghostwriter.
posted by automatronic at 3:54 AM on April 1, 2019 [7 favorites]
I love this movie and full-body shuddered when I read they considered Kate Hudson and Katie Holmes for Kat.
posted by jeather at 5:13 AM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by jeather at 5:13 AM on April 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
From the Guardian article:
As for the solution, Fincher suggested boxing and domestic terrorism. Mendes touted weightlifting, crushing on underage girls, and, ultimately, suicide.
Either they're misremembering how American Beauty ends or I am.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:02 AM on April 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
As for the solution, Fincher suggested boxing and domestic terrorism. Mendes touted weightlifting, crushing on underage girls, and, ultimately, suicide.
Either they're misremembering how American Beauty ends or I am.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:02 AM on April 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
I love this movie and full-body shuddered when I read they considered Kate Hudson and Katie Holmes for Kat.
I laughed when I read that Goldie Hawn didn't like the script and got Kate Hudson to pass on being in the movie.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:08 AM on April 1, 2019 [5 favorites]
I laughed when I read that Goldie Hawn didn't like the script and got Kate Hudson to pass on being in the movie.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:08 AM on April 1, 2019 [5 favorites]
One small joy of the movie is the fact that the ludicrous high school that is clearly some other building re-purposed by Hollywood... is in fact a real, though still kind of ludicrous, high school.
Stadium High School, Tacoma, Washington. Allegedly, it got the movie set in Seattle instead of Los Angeles after it was discovered by location scouts.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:15 AM on April 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
Stadium High School, Tacoma, Washington. Allegedly, it got the movie set in Seattle instead of Los Angeles after it was discovered by location scouts.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:15 AM on April 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
This was the first movie I ever saw in theaters without my parents! My friend and I went and saw it on our own; I guess I was 13. I had a hard time figuring out later whether I liked the movie so much just because of that fact, or whether it was actually good. Turns out it was actually a good movie!
posted by hopeless romantique at 7:20 AM on April 1, 2019
posted by hopeless romantique at 7:20 AM on April 1, 2019
I had no idea it was set in Seattle. I'm used to seeing bright, sunny, mostly outdoor portrayals of High School and just immediately thinking CA, TX, or FL.
posted by es_de_bah at 7:51 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by es_de_bah at 7:51 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Kate Hudson or Katie Holmes could have been a good Bianca.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:05 AM on April 1, 2019
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:05 AM on April 1, 2019
My high school best friend introduced me to this movie, and I was entranced. It was snarky, and witty, and fun! The chemistry between the entire cast is amazing, and something about this movie is just so magical.
posted by PearlRose at 9:17 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by PearlRose at 9:17 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I too am a huge fan of this movie. One day in the early 2000's, I and my SO at the time were looking for a pair of cats to adopt, and we found a young pair of brothers named Heath and Ledger. I fell in love with the names, and we with the cats and we immediately forged a strong bond. Like their namesake they are now gone, but at the time Heath Ledger wasn't as big as he would later be, and their awesome names felt like a great inside joke.
posted by tatiana131 at 10:54 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by tatiana131 at 10:54 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
From the NYT article: Director Gil Junger, after Ledger's audition:
The instant the door closed, I turned to the women in the room and said, “Ladies, I have never wanted to sleep with a man, but if I had to sleep with a man, that would be the man. Please cast him immediately.”
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 11:21 AM on April 1, 2019 [7 favorites]
The instant the door closed, I turned to the women in the room and said, “Ladies, I have never wanted to sleep with a man, but if I had to sleep with a man, that would be the man. Please cast him immediately.”
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 11:21 AM on April 1, 2019 [7 favorites]
I had caught a few episodes of Roar when it came out, and despite being otherwise dire, Ledger's charisma was already showing. But man did it just explode in Ten Things.
posted by tavella at 4:53 PM on April 1, 2019
posted by tavella at 4:53 PM on April 1, 2019
Since it had been a long time since I had seen it, rewatched it tonight. Yup, still holds up.
posted by tavella at 8:50 PM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 8:50 PM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I will credit this movie, in large part, for introducing me to feminism.
I mean, it definitely helped to have a set of female characters who were varied, autonomous, owned their sexuality (I will never, ever, encounter the word 'tumescent' and not think of this movie) - and allowed to be unlikable but still sympathetic.
But man the soundtrack. And even the references to a soundtrack (Letters to Cleo, Joan Jett, Bikini Kill, "You know who The Raincoats are?!") led me down a riotgrrl route which, while the scene might have been dying in the real world in 1999, was still cutting-edge for a sheltered Derbyshire girl whose only real point of reference was CDs that came free in the Daily Mail.
I have literally spent the last twenty years of my life with this music, and the wider genre behind it, as a frame of reference and I cannot even imagine who I would be now without it. Punk-rock-ass-bitches who screamed at the top of their lungs and were allowed to play their instruments badly and were overtly, explicitly, unashamedly political - they taught me to educate myself so that *I*, too, could be loud and righteous and unashamedly political in pursuit of things that were (are!) important.
And I got it from a teen movie. Everything is fucking important.
posted by citands at 5:38 AM on April 2, 2019 [15 favorites]
I mean, it definitely helped to have a set of female characters who were varied, autonomous, owned their sexuality (I will never, ever, encounter the word 'tumescent' and not think of this movie) - and allowed to be unlikable but still sympathetic.
But man the soundtrack. And even the references to a soundtrack (Letters to Cleo, Joan Jett, Bikini Kill, "You know who The Raincoats are?!") led me down a riotgrrl route which, while the scene might have been dying in the real world in 1999, was still cutting-edge for a sheltered Derbyshire girl whose only real point of reference was CDs that came free in the Daily Mail.
I have literally spent the last twenty years of my life with this music, and the wider genre behind it, as a frame of reference and I cannot even imagine who I would be now without it. Punk-rock-ass-bitches who screamed at the top of their lungs and were allowed to play their instruments badly and were overtly, explicitly, unashamedly political - they taught me to educate myself so that *I*, too, could be loud and righteous and unashamedly political in pursuit of things that were (are!) important.
And I got it from a teen movie. Everything is fucking important.
posted by citands at 5:38 AM on April 2, 2019 [15 favorites]
I'm pretty sure this movie came out 5 years ago.
posted by bongo_x at 2:34 PM on April 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 2:34 PM on April 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by lydhre at 4:30 PM on March 31, 2019 [11 favorites]