10 Things I Hate About You

10 Things I Hate About You
March 31, 1999
Touchstone
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B

This is a very '90s teen rom-com, based on The Taming of the Shrew, and even that inspiration is very '90s.  (Cf. not only Clueless, but She's All That, She's the Man, etc.)  Because it's the '90s, the "shrew" is refreshingly the most sympathetic character and she's not so much tamed as gentled by being treated with respect and affection, as well as a marching-band-backed serenade.  It helps that "tamed" and "tamer" are played by a charismatic and intelligent pair, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger (before he hit it big and then died young).  Also the dialogue and acting are above average for the genre.  (Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith would also co-write Legally Blonde.)  I would've of course liked to have seen more of Allison Janney as Ms. Perky, the guidance counselor who writes bodice-rippers on her office laptop.  The Seattle setting and the soundtrack are also uber-'90s, from the sight of the Space Needle and the sound of Bare Naked Ladies' "One Week" onward.  There are a lot of Renaissance/Shakespeare touches in the film, from sets to dialogue to last names.  If I can't rate the movie higher, it's that it never reaches the dizzy heights of Clueless or Romy & Michele.  However, it will look like, well, Shakespeare compared to the next movie....

Twelfth Night or What You Will

Twelfth Night or What You Will
October 25, 1996
Renaissance Films
Comedy, Romance, Historical
VHS
B-

My review of the play is here: http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2011/11/twelfth-night.html.  No, I wouldn't put this movie on that level-- it just doesn't build to anything-- but it is somewhat entertaining.  There are some puzzling choices for setting.  Why is it set in the Victorian period and filmed in Cornwall?  (When I saw the movie the Fall after a trip to England, I immediately recognized St. Michael's Mount on the screen.)  Not that this interferes with my enjoyment, but it is distracting.  I thought the movie did a nice job balancing the queer subtext of the original, even with women in the women's roles.

The cast is overall solid and I think Imogen Stubbs does well with Viola and Cesario, very different from her duplicity as Lucy Steele in Sense & Sensibility, since she has a reason for her deception here, and she makes both characters likable.  (Her Cesario is actually quite handsome and charming.)  As I said in my "book" review, 30-year-old Helena Bonham Carter is lovely as Olivia, and I like how she adds some sweetness and a sense of humour to the character.  Her maid Maria is played by Imelda Staunton, who had been Lucy's cousin and several years later would debut in the Harry Potter series in the same installment (fifth) as Carter, the two of them playing two very different villaineses.  Mel Smith plays Olivia's drunken uncle and does it with more subtlety than he showed in his brief self-direction in The Tall Guy.  Nigel Hawthorne, who plays Malvolio, would be Rodney Fraser in The Object of My Affection.