Day 42: 10 Things I Hate About You

Heath Ledger is such a babe. I just need to get that out there. I find his face enchanting and I just want to kiss it anytime he’s on screen. Anyway, moving on.

Feisty teenager, Kat (Julia Stiles), just wants to get through high school with the minimum amount of contact with the assholes that seem to populate the place. Her sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), wants to be able to date but their father is rather protective and so she can’t date until Kat does. And because this is a ‘90s film, it inevitably ends up meaning that a boy is paid to date the girl. And he then falls in love with her.

I know the heart wants what it wants and it doesn’t need to explain or justify itself but I cannot understand why Cameron likes Bianca. She forgets his name immediately upon him telling her it and she shows no interest in him whatsoever. Obviously she ends up liking him and they’re cute together but I just don’t get why he was so focused on her to begin with when she barely even looked at him. I always wish in films the person would just go “right, s/he isn’t interested, I’ll move on.” But that might be too sensible. And it's not as if people are that good at doing it in real life, so maybe it's too unrealistic to expect it to happen in a film.

Beautiful angel Patrick (Heath Ledger) is paid to date Kat but you can see right away she intrigues him and that he likes being around her. When he tries to pretend he’s casually bumping into her at the concert and he watches her dancing, the way he’s smiling is a clear indication it’s more than just about the money for him. I just love the scene when they’re in the pedalo and he’s saying how he gets her attitude and that he can see she thinks if she disappoints people straight off then she doesn’t have to live up to their expectations. And then he says she messed up because she never disappointed him. Ugh, he is so smooth. I would be smitten. Hell, I am smitten and it’s just fiction.

“Don’t let anyone ever make you feel like you don’t deserve what you want.”

8/10

Day 40: Hairspray

Tracy (Nikki Blonsky) wants to be a dancer on The Corny Collins Show more than anything but has a little difficulty as she is discriminated against because of her size. However, after realising that’s not the most important thing and that there is a serious race divide, she decides to take on the lack of integration within the show.

I really don’t like Tracy. First of all, she is a morning person. I don’t get you people, how can you just wake up and be all bouncy and ready to face the day? Ugh. That’s as good as you’re gonna feel all day, you can’t start off like that or it’ll all just go downhill. Another thing, the focus seems to be on her far too much. I know she’s trying to help and all but surely the focus should be on Maybelle (Queen Latifah) or Seaweed (Elijah Kelley)? And she completely ruins their march by hitting a police officer and then running away, leaving everybody else to get arrested. It just seems that there were a whole host of characters who could’ve had more focus.

The main one being Maybelle, obviously. Queen Latifah is such a babe in everything, I love her so much. My notes for whenever she was on screen are all very similar (“QUEEN LATIFAAAH. BE IN MORE THINGS.”) I think I’d much prefer the film to just be The Queen Latifah Show. It doesn’t even have to be about anything, she can just sing and be brilliant. Anyway, I’ve got sidetracked. Her song ‘Big, Blonde and Beautiful’ is my favourite. She seems like the only normal character while all the rest of them are overacting like crazy. Babe.

Link (Zac Efron) bothers me in this film and I’m never sure why. He’s so useless though, so that could be it. In one scene he went from telling Tracy that knowing her would be an adventure to telling her that the adventure would be too big for him. Quickest cop out ever, well done, Sir. And he’s usually so attractive but in this film he looks the strangest. It must be the ridiculous hair he’s got going on. And the fact he keeps winking all the time. Nobody should wink seriously, it is only to be done for laughs. Only men with hairy chests and gold medallions get to wink like that.

Despite all my problems with the film, I still like it. The songs are catchy and Queen Latifah is in it, what’s not to like?

7/10