She's All That

She's All That is hackneyed, frivolous and generally over-the-top.

But whoa, what a great flick.

The 'she' in She's All That, we must note, is Heroin Chick. You know, the amazingly gorgeous girl who so gracefully trashes her kitchen in that anti-drug commercial because "This is your BRAIN on drugs!" I think I'm in love. Anyway, she is Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook), professional high school nerd/Alterna-Girl. It's easy to spot Laney at school: She wears glasses and contrasting tie-dye smocks, doesn't talk to anyone and lingers in art class painting morbid abstracts of the sufferings in Mogadishu.

Her counterpart at what might as well be 90210 High School is Zach Syler (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Most Popular Guy in School. Zach's girlfriend Taylor, the most popular girl in school, returns from spring break and promptly dumps Zach in front of his friends. It turns out that Taylor met some guy named Brock while spring-breaking, and, as she tells Zach, "You didn't really think that I could leave high school still dating you, did you Zach? You did? Oh, that's so sweet!"

So Zach runs back to his buddies, Dean and Preston, and declares effectively, "To hell with Taylor! I'm Zach! I can date anyone! And whomsoever shall I date, she shall be POPULAR! And she, and not Taylor, shall be Prom Queen!" To which Dean replies, "Well, like, hey dude, like, how about, like, a bet? Dost thou truly believe that thou mightest take any of these not-so-fair-as-Taylor maidens and, simply by virtue of courting her, make her Prom Queen of our beloved school?" Then he points out Laney, and woo-hoo!-we have a plot.

The rest is predictable, especially if you've seen My Fair Lady. Zach actually starts to like Laney, and then Dean (going Iago on our asses) attempts sabotage. But She's All That mocks its own reliance on pop culture, and the result is really funny. Taylor's new stud, Brock, for instance, becomes a member of MTV's The Real World cast and acts like a modern day Puck. The Real World is often playing in the background, with Brock farting, or something, and offending the obligatory overly-sensitive black guy.

Basically, She's All That rocks, provided you have at least some tolerance for cheese. -By Chetan Rao