DVD/150: 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (Gil Junger, 1999)

Standing between CLUELESS and MEAN GIRLS in my trinity of High School comedies, this film's smart arse tone becomes relentless but it is saved by a lightness of touch and a likeable cast delivering winning performances.

Riffing off THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, Cameron - recently arrived at Padua High - befriends nerdy Michael and falls in love at first sight with Bianca Stratford.  But there's a catch: Bianca's protective father will only let her date when her older sister Kat does - and Kat's sarcastic, opinionated attitude towards guys makes them stay away.

School bully Joey also has his eye on Bianca so Cameron and Michael decide on finding a brave soul to ask Kat out and they choose the class outsider, Australian Patrick Verona.

Kat is intrigued by Patrick's pursuit of her and secretly recognizes a kindred spirit, but the course of true love never ran smooth, especially for Seattle kids...

Shelf or charity shop?  This is a keeper for the script's zingers and the charm of Julia Stiles as Kat, Heath Ledger as Patrick, Joseph-Gordon Levitt as Cameron, Larisa Oleynik as Bianca, David Ktumholtz as Michael, and a special mention to Larry Miller as Mr Stratford and the scene-stealing Allison Janney as Ms. Perky, the pupil guidance counsellor.  One for the DVD limbo of the plastic storage box.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

 
Went with O to see BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN at the weekend. Ang Lee's film has been much discussed, both while in-production and during it's release, and I was really looking forward to it. Sadly I was not as blown away by it as I was expecting to. It would have been good to have had some emphasis in some scenes but they all had the same slow pace with an inevitable slow fade to black at the end. HOWEVER.... I have found the film hovering over me like one of the large black clouds hovering over Brokeback Mountain itself and it's bleak vision of a Love That Dare Not Speak It's Name in Wyoming is difficult to forget.

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as the two men caught up in a love that they hardly understand themselves give career-best performances. Ledger inhabits the role as if born to it, unable to express the emotion that churns within he speaks as if every word has to be double-checked in case it gives him away. There are also telling performances by Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway as the men's wives, both growing more disillusioned as the year's go by. Randy Quaid as the rancher who brings the two men together initially and Linda Cadellini as a bar waitress who is also left hurt by falling in love with the Ledger character also shine in their few scenes.

Oh and Anna Farris, so toe-curlingly vapid as the Hollywood actress in LOST IN TRANSLATION, makes an impression here as a chattering airhead wife at a function attended by Gyllenhaal and Hathaway. The photography by Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto is jaw-droppingly sweeping.