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The Rewatchables ·

10 Things I Hate About You

year 1999decade 90sdirector Gil Jungergenre Drama
host Juliet Litmanhost Amanda Dobbinshost Andrew Gruttadaro
All 12 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 3:47

The Lowenstein party, pinned to Julia Stiles dancing on the table to Hypnotize

Andrew Gruttadaro: The first pick is the whole Lowenstein party (Bowie Lowenstein, as transcribed), starting with the flyers thrown down the stairwell; after an objection that this selects a whole portion of the movie, the pick narrows to Julia Stiles dancing on the table to Hypnotize.

Stiles has said in several interviews that the table dance got her the role in Save the Last Dance, which is called a backhanded compliment since she is thought to be a bad dancer there, a ballerina learning hip hop in Chicago; perhaps her dancing reflects the problems of that film's premise.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 35:48

"I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpacks"

The Prada backpack line, already raised earlier, is one pick and is called prescient; the overwhelmed, underwhelmed, whelmed exchange is another, and the lines between the two leads are praised; the poem remains the third pick as unassailable.

The film

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Directed by Gil Junger · Drama

97 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Cast credits have not been imported yet.

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

1:11

Casting What-Ifs

Larisa Oleynik wanted Kat and Julia Stiles wanted Bianca, per IMDb; Ashton Kutcher and Josh Hartnett also wanted Patr...

Larisa Oleynik wanted Kat and Julia Stiles wanted Bianca, per IMDb; Ashton Kutcher and Josh Hartnett also wanted Patrick Verona, which went to Heath Ledger in his first American film

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:11Read transcript
  • The film came out in 1999; according to IMDb, Larissa Olenek (as transcribed) wanted to play Kat and Julia Stiles wanted to play Bianca, and a casting director swapped them, with the caveat that IMDb's sourcing is looser than Wikipedia's and the 'I wanted that role but got this one' story is a common film narrative.
  • Patrick Verona, Heath Ledger's first American movie role, was also desired by Ashton Kutcher and Josh Hartnett; Hartnett is dark enough to have done it, while Kutcher would have made it a different movie.
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3:47

Most Rewatchable Scene

The Lowenstein party, pinned to Julia Stiles dancing on the table to Hypnotize; Heath Ledger singing Can't Take My Ey...

The Lowenstein party, pinned to Julia Stiles dancing on the table to Hypnotize; Heath Ledger singing Can't Take My Eyes Off of You with the marching band in the stadium; Kat's poem at the end

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:47Read transcript
  • The first pick is the whole Lowenstein party (Bowie Lowenstein, as transcribed), starting with the flyers thrown down the stairwell; after an objection that this selects a whole portion of the movie, the pick narrows to Julia Stiles dancing on the table to Hypnotize. — Andrew Gruttadaro
  • Stiles has said in several interviews that the table dance got her the role in Save the Last Dance, which is called a backhanded compliment since she is thought to be a bad dancer there, a ballerina learning hip hop in Chicago; perhaps her dancing reflects the problems of that film's premise.
  • The dance is remembered as the moment an older sister showed their mother as 'how teenagers dance'; it is a strong visual cue that would be a much-used gif today, memorable and awkward at once, with Kat drunk and hitting her head on the light fixture as a great coda.
  • The second pick is Heath Ledger dancing along to Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, played as a clip. — Amanda Dobbins
  • The song was learned either from this movie or from Lauryn Hill's cover released a year earlier, and only later recognized as a Frankie Valli song from the sixties; if someone says they were Heath Ledger'd, this strutting, bouncing-down-the-steps scene is the first one that comes to mind.
  • The hosts are asked how they would have reacted in high school to a suitor hiring the marching band for a Frankie Valli song and dancing around the stadium: one would have loved it, another would have asked for a private conversation but thinks it would have worked if they tried it.
  • At 33 the stadium serenade is a hard no and public confrontation is unwelcome, but the high school version of her would have been really charmed. — Amanda Dobbins
  • The soccer team is into the serenade and clapping, so there is little embarrassment, and Kat (Cat Stafford, as transcribed) is really moved by it, which is believable; still, no flash mobs now.
  • The third pick is Kat's poem at the end, which its picker often watches at a desk; the poem is played as a clip.
  • Asked in what circumstances the desk viewing happens, the answer is around 3:15, a little tired and vulnerable and wanting to watch someone else be vulnerable; it is a great poem that nails the rhyme at the end, took one take with natural, improvised tears, and is a movie grand gesture.
  • The Heath Ledger singing and the poem are both liked, along with Kat's antagonistic relationship with her teacher, who tells her to get out when she calls an assignment great.
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12:00

What’s Aged the Best?

The cast; Kat's ahead-of-its-time wokeness and coolness; Bianca's wardrobe and the Prada backpack line

The cast; Kat's ahead-of-its-time wokeness and coolness; Bianca's wardrobe and the Prada backpack line

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:00Read transcript
  • The cast is impressive: Stiles, Ledger, and Andrew Keegan, whose acting career has faded but who has fame as the leader of a Venice spiritual organization called Full Circle, covered by New York Magazine, busted by undercover agents for selling illegal kombucha and now pursuing sound healing according to a Keegan quote to Page Six.
  • Keegan was also in O, the Othello remake with Julia Stiles that marked the downturn of the teen Shakespeare trend; 10 Things is the highlight of a trend that started with Romeo and Juliet, and Hartnett is in O.
  • Kat's wokeness is ahead of its time: she slams Hemingway after someone calls him romantic, insists the Spanish Civil War matters, and delivers the line about being male and an asshole making you worthy of our time, while playing it lovable rather than as a shrill shrew. — Andrew Gruttadaro
  • Watching as an adult brings envy and respect for how Kat conducts her life at 17, going to weeknight shows at a bar; the film name-checks Bikini Kill and the Raincoats, bands one host only learned about recently via 20th Century Women; teenage characters rarely age this well, even if her coolness may have made her less relatable to teens.
  • Bianca's wardrobe, white jeans with a crop top, is back in even if the tailoring differs, and the line 'I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpacks' is both funny and prescient about a backpack renaissance.
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15:52

What’s Aged the Worst?

Parts of the soundtrack, including the One Week remix and an unironic Smash Mouth cue; the school's lax discipline, f...

Parts of the soundtrack, including the One Week remix and an unironic Smash Mouth cue; the school's lax discipline, from the flashing to the sausage prank, the arrow and the golf balls; Kat's crop tops and platform flip-flops

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:52Read transcript
  • Some of the soundtrack has aged worst: the film opens with a remix of Barenaked Ladies' One Week, disputed as a remix, positioned as the popular girls' music that Kat drowns out with riot grrrl; a very unironic Smash Mouth cue feels corny, and Smash Mouth, who also covered Can't Get Enough of You Baby for Can't Hardly Wait, were a nineties soundtrack staple who no longer are.
  • Some soundtrack bands now read as jokes, such as Daz by Brick and Saturday Night by Tagana (as transcribed), though George Clinton and the Cardigans are also on it; one host realized they spent a lot of time with the CD as a teenager and saw Barenaked Ladies and the Cardigans at Atlanta's Jingle Ball.
  • Flashing a teacher to get someone out of detention would be received differently now, and the teacher would fear for his job; the school's discipline is lax overall, with Miss Perky merely telling Patrick Verona not to do it after his sausage prank on a lunch lady, Bianca shooting a teacher in the rear with an arrow, and a character firing golf balls into a crowd with no consequences.
  • The persistent trope of nerds getting away with things because they are smart, as in Stranger Things, appears here when Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David Krumholtz descend into a nerd lab like a parallel society.
  • Bianca's outfits are good but Julia Stiles' are poor: crop tops that are not coming back and platform flip-flops from Delia's that date it to a specific moment, though platforms are back on the market and slides were everywhere; the sisters have similar styles executed differently.
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22:17

Half-Assed Internet Research

Andrew Keegan could not draw the anatomy gag and David Krumholtz showed him how; the film was shot entirely on locati...

Andrew Keegan could not draw the anatomy gag and David Krumholtz showed him how; the film was shot entirely on location, with Stadium High School in Tacoma as the school; Kat's poem took one take with natural tears

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:17Read transcript
  • Andrew Keegan (Andrew Keaton, as transcribed) did not know how to draw the anatomy gag and David Krumholtz showed him; the hosts find this baffling, debate whether it is a drawing rather than knowledge problem, and one notes that the on-screen attempt in four parts is not how it is done, though building it serves the punchline.
  • It is a very well directed, tight 90-minute film that hits all the right notes, down to the process of drawing the gag.
  • The movie was filmed entirely on location, so the gigantic stadium, staircase and Hogwarts-looking school is a real school, Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington, which is wasted on teenagers; asked what happens there when it rains, the answer is that they shot in summer, and it is a grand vista for Heath Ledger's debut.
  • Research found the poem took only one take and the tears were natural and improvised.
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25:01

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Andrew Keegan

Andrew Keegan

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:01Read transcript
  • Nobody is sure what the award means, but all agree Andrew Keegan wins it: someone on fire and punching above their weight class; his lines are played as a clip.
  • Keegan is a prick in all the right ways, from showing off two modeling photos, this one or this one, to calling someone a cheese dick, a great nineties bully term; the modeling at the party is iconic.
  • It is clearly Keegan because nothing in his filmography comes close, though Camp Nowhere is defended as a good Keegan performance.
  • Keegan's heat check is also called his apex, a real Dion Waiters move; he burned hot and fast in this movie.
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31:05

Apex Mountain

Andrew Keegan; Julia Stiles (one host puts this over Save the Last Dance; two name Save the Last Dance)

Andrew Keegan; Julia Stiles (one host puts this over Save the Last Dance; two name Save the Last Dance)

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:31:05Read transcript
  • Asked whether this is anyone's apex, the first answer is a hedged 'I mean, I guess Andrew Keegan', which another turn firms up as both his heat check performance and his apex, congratulating him for going out on top.
  • For Julia Stiles, two hosts call Save the Last Dance her apex, despite one taking issue with her dancing, while a third puts this film over Save the Last Dance.
  • Stiles is outshined by Heath Ledger here, and Sean Patrick Harris (as transcribed) does not bring it the same way in Save the Last Dance; that film also features an unrecognizably different Kerry Washington, identifiable only by how she over-enunciates like Olivia Pope.
  • Her later career is surveyed: Dexter as Lumen, the Borne (as transcribed) films that Chris Ryan would push for, The Prince and Me, the rough patch of Mona Lisa Smile and O, then Columbia and a return with State and Maine (as transcribed) and Silver Linings Playbook; she is very good at being mean.
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33:10

Unintentional Comedy Award

Kat playing electric guitar with headphones while Patrick stares; Bianca moping in a tire swing with a cut to Kat's f...

Kat playing electric guitar with headphones while Patrick stares; Bianca moping in a tire swing with a cut to Kat's face; the bar scenes

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:10Read transcript
  • The montage-y scenes are funniest: Julia Stiles playing electric guitar with headphones on, something only a 50-year-old at Guitar Center does, while Heath Ledger walks up and stares at her, and Bianca moping in a tire swing with a cut back to Kat's face.
  • The bar scenes also hold many unintentionally comic moments, which leads the hosts to merge unintentional comedy with unanswerable questions.
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33:57

Probably Unanswerable Questions

How do these high school kids get into bars on weeknights? How old is Patrick Verona? Why is Julia Stiles a better da...

How do these high school kids get into bars on weeknights? How old is Patrick Verona? Why is Julia Stiles a better dancer here than in Save the Last Dance?

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:57Read transcript
  • How these high schoolers get into bars on weeknights, and how old Patrick Verona is, since he could be 19 or 36; he took a year off because his grandfather was sick, and is drinking beer in the open and playing pool at the bar where he is recruited for the job.
  • There are a lot of bars for a high school movie, perhaps a Pacific Northwest nod or 16-and-over clubs like the limelight; the Letters to Cleo venue is suspiciously well lit and clean with a Hollywood sheen, and a father who forbids dating would not allow a Tuesday show, though its all-women crowd at Club Skunk might make it a safe space given his stated worries.
  • Flagged earlier as an unanswerable question: why Stiles is a much better dancer here than in Save the Last Dance, with tequila offered as the answer.
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35:48

Picking Nits

The guitar-in-the-car resolution forgives Patrick without resolving anything and betrays Kat's character; the resolut...

The guitar-in-the-car resolution forgives Patrick without resolving anything and betrays Kat's character; the resolution is rushed after the unresolved prom

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:35:48Read transcript
  • The resolution is called bullshit: Kat finds a guitar in her car and all is forgiven, which the film half-acknowledges with her line about not buying her a guitar every time; it is a betrayal of a character written as a feminist who reads the Bell Jar, and who should at least make him sweat a few days, though Ledger's charm and the bass-and-drums line would work on the hosts every time.
  • The film waits too long to clear this hurdle, which spoils the dance scene and then rushes the resolution; like Hanks in You've Got Mail, a charming guy can sell anything in these movies, which is how they get the rom-com-loving hosts.
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35:48

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpacks"; "I know you can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed, but ...

"I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpacks"; "I know you can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"; "I hate the way you talk to me and the way you cut your hair" (the poem)

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:35:48Read transcript
  • The Prada backpack line, already raised earlier, is one pick and is called prescient; the overwhelmed, underwhelmed, whelmed exchange is another, and the lines between the two leads are praised; the poem remains the third pick as unassailable.
  • The Prada backpack line was first quoted during what aged best as both hilarious and a marker of fashion trends.
  • The poem itself, from 'I hate the way you talk to me' through 'not even a little bit, not even at all', is heard in full during the most rewatchable scene segment.
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38:00

Who Won the Movie?

Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:00Read transcript
  • Heath Ledger is named immediately in three affirmative turns, and the consensus on the supremacy of both Andrew Keegan and Heath Ledger is noted, with no shots at the women in the movie; the two got to the mountaintop, Ledger's with a marching band.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Heath Ledger
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More from the conversation

The cast is a who's who of the late nineties and early 2000s and nearly everyone's breakout role; the one already-famous member was Larissa Olenek (as transcribed) from Alex Mack, and Alex Mack is preferred to her Bianca.
Approx. transcript time · 00:00:15Read transcript
Filming reportedly started without Heath Ledger, who then won everyone over as a mysterious presence much like his character; it is sad he is gone, and this is called 100% his iconic role, a relief next to the dark Brokeback and Joker roles that feed the narrative ending in his death, showing him as a fun, charismatic, normal human who is actually funny.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:12Read transcript
The scene where Patrick asks Cameron where Bianca kissed him and his face falls at 'on the lips', disappointed by how grade school it all is, is cited as a great funny moment.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:32Read transcript
The table dance is remembered vividly from release, when an older sister showed their mother that this is how teenagers dance.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:06Read transcript
The host with beef with the dad points out the initial house rule is no dating until college, later changed so Bianca can date once Kat does, which creates conflict between the sisters and is called rude and bad parenting.
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:11Read transcript
Another host calls this a great note and admits having always thought the later rule was the original one; the pregnancy suit scene is still very funny; the hosts debate whether no dating until college is really so conservative, concluding it is strict but survivable, that teens would mostly miss out on bad dates, and that the real problem is the dad changing the rule to start a war in his house.
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:42Read transcript
Kat's eagerness to leave the West Coast for Sarah Lawrence mirrors a major plot point in Lady Bird, as do the Howard Zinn book and Dave Matthews references, so that moment has aged well too.
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:02Read transcript
Gabrielle Union plays Bianca's best friend who turns out bitchy at the end, a disappointment, but she has been killing it ever since and Bring It On is her signature movie; David Krumholtz has CBS money from his numbers show, reportedly plays a sleazy porn director on The Deuce, and avoided child-star pitfalls after debuting in Life with Mikey in 1993.
Approx. transcript time · 00:26:01Read transcript
Susan May Pratt went on to play bitchy women in She's All That and Center Stage, where she becomes lovable; one host keeps Center Stage on the DVR and remembers skipping a group outing to it in high school and seeing it alone a week later.
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:21Read transcript
Allison Janney makes the most of her time as Miss Perky, played as a clip, and this kicked off a run for her, with The West Wing starting the same year in a wildly different role.
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:05Read transcript
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fine, though Inception and The Dark Knight Rises are liked; he is a hipster heartthrob to fans of 500 Days of Summer, which the hosts are not, and he works here as a nerd with a cracking voice rather than the hipster hottie he became.
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:50Read transcript
Having liked 500 Days of Summer, a rewatch found it a little too much.
Approx. transcript time · 00:29:06Read transcript
The final prom is compared with other teen-movie dances: She's All That with Usher as DJ is the top of the mountain, Driving Crazy (as transcribed) looks similar, and Save the Last Dance is mostly club dancing; this one has Letters to Cleo but does not land, since dress-up is not the film's strength, nothing is resolved there unlike Pretty in Pink, and the viewer knows Ledger was paid to take Kat.
Approx. transcript time · 00:29:36Read transcript
Ledger's concussion protocol at the party is admired, though the film never shows how he woke Kat up; she shakes off the concussion within 20 minutes, and the hosts split on whether he declines to kiss her because she is drunk or because of the money, noting he made out with her for half the movie before falling for her.
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:15Read transcript
The paintball date is hilarious but would be a terrible date; it is played without guns, likely because paint balloons look beautiful on film, and the splattering color is part of a very bright, delightful movie.
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:14Read transcript
The film is called one of the best nineties teen movies, perhaps a favorite teen comedy alongside Romeo and Juliet as the favorite teen drama and Can't Hardly Wait; a Center Stage B-side episode is floated, and the blonde from Center Stage is said to be recurring on Suits as Jodi.
Approx. transcript time · 00:40:04Read transcript
Sign-off: listeners are told to catch up on The Fugitive, Face Off and this episode, and the three hosts name themselves.
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:03Read transcript