I loved “He’s All That.”
One might say it’s an abomination and total disaster, and while that’s 100% accurate, “He’s All That” is terrific as an (unintentional) study of everything wrong with modern Hollywood. This is an outstanding “so bad it’s good“ movie.
“He’s All That” is a remake of the 1999 film “She’s All That.” This film stars Addison Rae (yes, the Tik Tok influencer) as a social media influencer & popular girl at Cali High School in California. One day she accepts a challenge to turn a social outcast named Cameron Kweller (played by Taylor Buchanan) into her school’s prom king. Kourtney Kardashian is also in this film for some reason. If you weren’t already ecstatic and eager to watch this film after reading that phenomenal premise, you will be once you see this horrific, horrific trailer:
What I loved most about this cinematic achievement was that it was practically an advertisement for Addison Rae and the Tik Tok platform itself. This film reminds me of a (far worse) web series called “Attaway General,” (A.K.A. Tik Tok Hospital) which has real-life Tik Tok influencers in the lead roles playing hospital volunteers. The first way “He’s All That” and Tik Tok Hospital are similar is that this entire film looks like a YouTube video made by 65-year-olds who don’t know how to use a cell phone, but just found a script written by a 13-year-old and decided to make it into a motion picture. The color saturation is turned all the way up and all the shots look like they were designed by a terrible music video director.
Secondly, the writing quality is almost identical to that of “Attaway General.” The film tries to present itself as self-aware and pretends to acknowledge how ridiculous it is that the main character is played by someone who makes a living off of dancing in front of an iPhone. There are several scenes in which a character will point out how strange it is that Addison Rae’s character will just take a selfie during any activity/event/disaster, but none of them work. This is not only because a Tik Tok star was given top billing, but also because the film has a message of “see — not all social media influencers are fake,” which is executed incredibly poorly. The film even ends in an unironic Tik Tok dance battle!
The third way “He’s All That” is similar to “Attaway General” is the nightmarish acting. My theory for why this is (besides embarrassingly bad direction) was that all the actors were doing their best to match the performance Addison Rae was giving so that her acting didn’t seem as atrocious as it really was (because that would damage what will soon be an illustrious acting career). This will come as no surprise, but Addison Rae is not an actress. She is constantly having far too much fun on screen; she takes absolutely none of the acting seriously, and instead just wants to enjoy being on a film set.
Although the story of “He’s All That” is incredibly generic and soulless, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching this film. Simply knowing that Netflix spent millions and millions of dollars on an Addison Rae vehicle that’s also a remake gives me insurmountable joy, especially after seeing how incompetently the film was made. I strongly recommend this film, especially to cynics who just want to laugh at a hilariously terrible movie.