She’s All That introduced American teenagers to high-stakes bets in their high school halls. If Freddie Prinze Jr. was gonna make the dorky Laney Boggs prom queen, he was gonna need to give her an extreme makeover because as it is, she’s ugly — she has glasses, a bad haircut and she doesn’t tweeze her eyebrows. This movie shows us her transformation in a highly entertaining 90 minutes. At first, audiences must sit there and think, “There’s no way,” but by the end you’re seeing she’s actually pretty hot and has a decent shot at beating Taylor Vaughn for prom queen. So sit back and relax and enjoy my video essay and make sure to watch till the end as I edit together a special “what if” ending. Also, be sure to go re-watch this iconic movie from 1999 that was made by Miramax Films.
Video Essay: She’s All That and the Power of Transformation
Talkhouse Film's senior video essayist Kentucker Audley highlights the pleasures (and faults!) of yet another classic movie

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