The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award
Popularity template; borrowed tropes; boyfriend’s accusation structurally essential
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:06Read transcript
- The film is called exceptionally influential for making the pursuit of popularity a teen-movie template, with Drive Me Crazy and 10 Things I Hate About You as descendants.
- The film’s obliviousness-to-romance and abandoning-old-friends patterns are seen again in Mean Girls and Beverly Hills 90210.
- The college boyfriend explicitly naming the transactional relationship is argued to be essential to the film’s structure.