She’s the Man (2006)
Oh, She’s the Man, what a masterful piece of cinema. Surely the movie will go down as one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed works of its generation in the annals of film history. Who could forget Amanda Bynes’s brilliant performance, for which she was nominated for the coveted Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Movie Star? Truly we shall never see quite an original, high-concept film ever again.
Okay, maybe it’s not the Citizen Kane of romantic comedies, but She’s the Man does have its merits. Clichés and slapstick humor aside, the 2006 movie makes the most of its cross-dressing premise and throws in enough dramatic and situational irony to elicit some cheap laughs (*cough* the flashing scene *cough*). The acting may not be Oscar worthy, but Amanda Bynes was probably at the height of her post-Nickelodeon popularity at this point; she manages to bring a level of quirkiness to the experience even without her dancing lobsters. At the opposite end of the spectrum career-wise, Channing Tatum was still a newcomer to the big screen in 2006. His performance definitely foreshadows his future ventures into comedy, especially the Jump Street movies.
Of course, I would be at fault if I talked about She’s the Man without bringing up its inspiration. I probably would not have enjoyed this movie half as much if I hadn’t also been reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the time of my first viewing. In that regards, She’s the Man is part of a Hollywood tradition of updating and adapting some of the Bard’s most famous works, the results of which include classics like West Side Story and Forbidden Planet. And this movie is right up there with them! Or not. Still, I remember getting a kick out of the names of the rival schools (Cornwall and Illyria) when I realized they were a direct reference to the play. Little details like that are what make this movie my guilty pleasure romantic comedy. –Aaron Sarnecky
[php] wp_link_pages(array(‘before’=>’
‘)); [/php]
============================================================================================================================================
