Can't Hardly Wait (1998)

“Just so you know, judging from my little experience, I kind of believe in fate. It just works in really fucked up ways sometimes.” – Denise Fleming, Can’t Hardly Wait.

The release of Can’t Hardly Wait coincided with a very important moment in my life – my high school graduation. Having just finished some of the best/worst moments of my life, I was able to relate to the characters in this movie (especially the nerd, William Lichter).  Can’t Hardly Wait takes a lot of cues from American Graffiti (one of my favorite movies); it has a multi-storyline structure that follows various characters on the last night of their high school lives.  The difference between the two movies is that American Graffiti has a cinéma vérité feeling to it, while Can’t Hardly Wait is highly stylized. 

In my opinion Can’t Hardly Wait is one of the better teenage comedies from the late 1990s/early 2000s, largely due to its likable cast and energetic direction by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan.  

Can’t Hardly Wait has six primary characters and it’s important to discuss each one to help set up just exactly what Elfont/Kaplan were up to:

Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry)

Preston is an aspiring writer who has harbored a crush for Amanda Beckett since he was a freshman. After hearing that Mike Dexter has dumped Amanda , Preston is convinced that fate has given him an opportunity to tell Amanda how he truly feels (Ethan Embry, with his sad eyes and fidgety demeanor is well cast). Preston deduces that Amanda will be at the big graduation party (being held at the house of a nameless classmate), and thus this will give him a chance to deliver the love letter he has written her.  This letter has been in his possession for years and has gone through multiple drafts.  This is a great example of movie logic vs. real life logic. In the movie, Preston’s obsession over Amanda, to the point of endlessly revising a simply love letter, is ROMANTIC (swoon), in real life, however, it would be viewed as creepy.  Ladies, picture a man you have never spoken to, walking up to you in the street and with demented grin on his face, handing you a love letter that he has kept in his possession for many years…yeah, pretty damn creepy.  Therefore, it is completely understandable when, later on, Preston (sans the letter) confesses his feelings towards Amanda and she (oblivious to the fact that he wrote the love letter) writes him off as a complete creep.  Seconds later, she looks up Preston’s picture in the yearbook (Preston’s name is on the love letter, but she has no idea who he is) and is appalled at her behavior towards her semi-secret admirer. 

Amanda Beckett(Jennifer Love Hewitt)

Jennifer Love Hewitt was the IT girl when Can’t Hardly Wait went into production and is perfectly cast as Amanda as Amanda Beckett – the most popular girl in high school.  She also has probably the most thankless role in the entire cast; Amanda is sanest character out of the group, hence the least interesting.  Her main conflict is trying to adapt to post Mike Dexter/high school life.  Her identity in high school was simply “Mike’s Girlfriend” and it’s a role that she willing to play, because the alternative (being alone) scared her.  Preston’s love letter, which magically falls into her hands, gives her the confidence to move on with her life. Though, it’s a bit problematic that Amanda’s idea of moving on is to jump directly into another relationship (with Preston) after having just been dumped by Mike.  Of course, this is a trope that pervades most teen comedies, so it’s hard to really fault Can’t Hardly Wait for sticking to the formula. 

The filmmakers slowly build to Amanda's first appearance, thus give Jennifer Love Hewitt her "star" moment. It is not until about twenty minutes into the movie that we get a good look at Amanda Beckett. The party goers (and the movie) comes to a complete stop when she makes her appearance at the party.  Before this moment everything we  learn about her comes from high school gossip and Preston’s flashback, which cleverly  obscures her face.  She is a near mythic figure at Huntington High School; in Preston’s flashback her arrival is signaled by thunder and lightning.   The party is first time that many of her classmates, and the audience, are seeing her in a human light. Who is the real Amanda? What is she going to do?  As the movie progresses Amanda, despite her lofty position in the high school hierarchy, becomes a sympathetic figure.  The party is a catalyst for Amanda to move on with her life; she no longer cares what other people think of her.

Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli)

Peter Facinelli gives  my favorite performance in the entire movie as the arrogant jock, Mike Dexter.  He is wonderfully obnoxious in his early scenes – when his friends express their disbelief that he broke up with THE Amanda Beckett, he responds with a belch.  He perfectly embodies the phrase “the man you love to hate.” Yet, when Mike’s world comes falling apart around him, Facinelli manages to make the character sympathetic. This was supposed to be a big night for Mike; instead it has turned into a descent into hell (an off screen, female voice calls him a “FAG” following his public humiliation at the hands of Amanda).  The only sympathetic ear at the party is William Fichter – the nerd who Mike has tormented for years.

William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo)

William Lichter’s character arc is interesting, because it is the exact opposite of Mike Dexter’s – he begins the night as a complete outsider (he was an anti-social nerd in high school) and ends up being the most popular guy at the party; his drunken rendition of Guns N' Roses "Paradise City" proves to be a big hit with his fellow party goers. William’s initial reason for going to the party is to get revenge of Mike Dexter, for the years of torment and public embarrassments, and has contrived a plan to humiliate Mike:
He will lure Mike and a jock friend behind the pool house, then two of his nerd friends will jump the jocks and knock them out with chloroform.  The two jocks will then be stripped of their clothes and posed in suggestive positions while William takes Polaroids of them.
However, William’s revenge plot gets put on hold  as he starts to intermingle with his classmates and gets absolutely wasted as the night progresses.  In an even more shocking twist, William and Mike actually share a bonding moment at the party, albeit a drunken one.  This leads to one of my favorite exchanges in the movie:

 Mike Dexter: You remember the time that you had to make that really stupid speech, and I kinda sorta tripped you, and everybody started laughing at you in school?
William Lichter: OK, yeah. Yeah.
Mike Dexter: I'm sorry.
William Lichter: Oh, man. Don't worry about it.
Mike Dexter: Hey, it's ancient history, right?
William Lichter: It's ancient history.
Mike Dexter: When was that, anyway?
William Lichter: That was this morning at graduation.
Mike Dexter: Oh, yeah.

Denise Fleming(Lauren Ambrose)

Denise is the misfit out of the group – she doesn’t belong in a specific group and is fairly anti-social. It is only due to Preston’s insistence that she attends the party.  Preston is her best and, possibly,  only friend, so when he goes off to find Amanda, she is left to her own devices and has a hard time fitting in; the only person that talks to her, a seemingly shy girl, does so on a bet.  In a more traditional teenage comedy, Denise and Preston would end up together, while Amanda is left standing on the curb. After all, the set up is there – Preston is infatuated with Amanda, completely oblivious to the fact that his best, female, friend is fairly cute in her own right. Though, at least Can’t Hardly Wait doesn’t make this mistake most teen comedies make by casting the more attractive women in the role of the “plain best friend.” Lauren Ambrose is cute, but she is not “beautiful”, in the traditional Hollywood sense. However, Elfont/Kaplan have a much different fate in store for Denise. She doesn’t end up with her current best friend Preston, but, rather, her best friend from childhood, Kenny Fisher. 

Kenny Fisher(Seth Green)

In the 90s, the term used to describe a guy like Kenny was “wigger.” This piece of slang was, understandably, put to pasture by the end of the decade (though, it is occasionally thrown around). Kenny is a white suburban boy who emulates “black culture,” much to the annoyance of everyone around him.  His sole reason for going to the party is to get laid, but, much to his surprise, it proves to be a lot more difficult that he expected (most of the women greet him with complete disdain).  Just when it looks like he might score with a girl looking for rebound sex, he gets himself locked in a bathroom with Denise. The two of them have been estranged since the sixth grade – Kenny stopped talking to her because he thought it might hurt his popularity.  Their time in the bathroom together allows for them to reconnect and Kenny drops the pretense.

The underlying theme of Can’t Hardly Wait is fate: does it exist, and if so, what purpose does it play in our life. It is clear that Elfont/Kaplan clearly believe in fate as it is setting their cinematic world in motion:  Mike Dexter breaks up with Amanda Beckett on Graduation Day, which allows Preston to express his true feeling towards her (via love letter); The house band gets into a petty argument and breaks up, setting the stage for social wallflower, William, to do a rowdy sing a long to “Paradise City,” which in turns makes him the life of the party; a broken door knob traps estranged friends, Denise Fleming and Kenny Fisher, in the bathroom together, which leads to romance; and through a series of contrivances, Preston’s love letters ends up in Amanda’s hands (after he has thrown it in the garbage). 

Can’t Hardly Wait was given mixed reviews by the critics and, rather bafflingly, has a lower rating than American Pie. Sure, Can’t Hardly Wait isn’t a perfect movie, but its theme is much better integrated into its story than the contrived message American Pie preaches (There is more to life than sex, kids!”)

Fate is not the only thing at work in Can’t Hardly Wait, as there are thee moments of divine intervention: Mike’s run in with Trip McNeely; the head banger that starts blaring Gun N Roses’ “Paradise City” on his boom box; and, rather blatantly, Preston’s encounter with a stripper dressed like an angel. These three minor characters, seemingly, appear out of nowhere and force the main characters into taking action.

Divine Intervention#1: Trip McNeely

 
Mike Dexter has broken up with Amanda; because he is “a college guy” now and his main interest in life is hooking up with college girls. He tries to convince his friends to break up with their girlfriends so they can spend the entire summer hanging out together before going to college. His friends are, at first, enthusiastic about the idea (“Girlfriends suck!”), but when they arrive at the party they have a complete change of heart.  Mike feels betrayed and, after getting rejected by two girls, sits on a porch swing to sulk. Then, quite unexpectedly, former high school great, Trip McNeely, sits down next to Mike and is completely wasted. Mike is absolutely elated – not only is Trip a legend for his on field accomplishments, but his off field as well (he was a sexual monster).  However, post-high school life has not been pretty for Trip; he broke up with his high school girlfriend (for the exact same reason Mike broke up with Amanda) only to find rejection in college (the women on campus don’t care about athletics). He even begged his high school girlfriend to take him back, but she had moved on. Trip, oblivious Mike has broken up with Amanda, advises Mike to stay with her and then walks off in a drunken stupor. This is a “Ghost of Christmas Future” moment for Mike – Trip is, essentially, a future version of himself if he doesn’t change his ways. However, Mike misinterprets the meaning of this encounter and, rather focusing on bettering himself, he decides it is pivotal that he gets back with Amanda. He publicly asks Amanda to take him back, but she rejects the offer, thus making him look like an asshole in the process.  

Divine Intervention#2: The Head Banger

 
The party has grown kind of stale, when suddenly a head banger jumps on the band stage and starts blaring “Paradise City” on his boom box. William is chilling with the stoners outside, when he hears “Paradise City” blaring from inside the house. He comments that he knows this song because a student he tutored used to play this song all the time. He then stumbles indoors, pushes aside the head banger with the boom box, and does a rowdy, drunken sing a long to “Paradise City.” The other party goers find it funny at first, but the rowdier William gets, the more they get into it – there is body surfing and a drunken girl flashes him. William becomes a rock star in his own right and  even acquires a few groupies, who are eager to make out with him. The party is a life changing experience for William as it changes him from being a socially awkward nerd to a laid back, popular fellow (he goes on to become one of the most popular students at Harvard). However, without the head banger spurring on William, there is a good chance he would have spent the rest of party hanging out with the stoners, spewing philosophical nonsense.  

Divine Intervention #3: The Angel Stripper

 
Preston leaves the party after he witnesses (and misinterprets) Ron making a pass at Amanda. He was certain that this was going to be his night, because he heard the Barry Manilow song “Mandy” playing on the radio and interpreted as a sign. Denise scoffs at this and tells him that the song was written about a dog. It turns out that the radio station he is listening to is having a Barry Manilow marathon, much to Preston’s chagrin. However, the station is conducting an interview with Barry Manilow, and their  listeners can call in and ask him a question. Preston decides to call in to find out whether or not “Mandy” was about a dog and pulls up to a pay phone (remember those?).  While he is on the pay phone, a woman dressed like an angel materializes out of nowhere and asks if she can use the pay phone – her car has died and she needs to call a taxi.  She hangs up the phone on Preston, after hearing his question for the DJ, and then commandeers the pay phone. Preston has a few choice words with her, until she points out the absurdity of him wanting call Barry Manilow at two in the morning.  Preston realizes she is right and begins to mope on a bench. She then sits down next to him and offers up some words of wisdom.  She tells him there is fate, but it can only take you so far and the rest is up to you.  The angel stripper tells Preston about an encounter she had with Scott Baio – she had a major crush on the actor and fate had dealt her favorable hand to tell him how she felt. However, at the last second she chickened out, leaving her to wonder “WHAT IF?” for the rest of her life.

 

 This revitalizes Preston and he is determined to tell Amanda his true feelings – he doesn’t want to have another “WHAT IF?” moment in his life.  This one of the best scenes in the movie and, interestingly, Ethan Embry has much better onscreen chemistry with Jenna Elfman than he does with Jennifer Love Hewitt.  Jenna Elfman’s delivery of the “Scott Baio” monologue borders on the comedic/tragic. It is simultaneously hilarious and heart breaking.  It is a small role, but Elfman nearly steals the movie.  I also like the touch of having her emerge from a fog bank – it gives the scene an ethereal quality to it. Is she really a stripper disguised as an angel? Or is she Preston’s guardian angel disguised as a stripper?

While the Amanda – Preston story line is settled in a traditional manner, the structure of Can’t Hardly Wait, itself, is fairly atypical.  The plot to your average teen comedy is “Boy meets girl – boy loses girl – boy wins girl back". However, the two “romantic leads” in Can’t Hardly Wait, Ethan Embry and Jennifer Love Hewitt, share very little screen time and only twice do they exchange dialogue (both scenes occur in the last half hour). It seems whenever Preston is ready to make his movie, fate steps in the way. Early in the party, he is sitting right next to Amanda on a couch, when suddenly a nostalgic classmate starts to tell an embarrassing story about Preston, while Amanda laughs in the foreground.

 

The closer Preston gets to Amanda the more difficult it becomes - it's on par with getting to the final boss in a video game. You work so hard to get to the final stage, when, out of nowhere, a stray bullet strikes the character and you have to start all over. It is always an uphill battle Preston. Maybe the party is fate's way of telling Preston that it is not meant to be. NAH!

William Lichter's revenge plot against Mike Dexter gets put on hold as he is too busy intermingling with his classmates and having the time of his life. It also proves to be unnecessary because Amanda's public take down of Mike is far more damaging to his ego than any revenge William could ever think of. It also backfires big time - when, after the police raid the party, Mike tries to lead his newfound friend, William, to safety behind the pool house and the two of them get jumped, and chloroformed, by William's two nerdy minions. The nerds snap pictures of Mike and William is obscene positions and only afterwards do they realize their mistake. The cops then arrive on the scene and haul Mike and William to jail.   

There are also a few minor subplots going on as the movie unfolds: A psychotically perky girl (Melissa Joan Hart) is determined to get everyone to sign her yearbook; the hostess of the party slowly loses her mind as it gets more out of control; the band, Love Burger, breaks up before playing a single note and then agree to get back together; and a kleptomaniac steals anything that is within his reach.  The one thing you can’t say about Can’t Hardly Wait is that it is boring, because there is so much going on.

However, there are certain scenes/elements of Can’t Hardly Wait that never really sat well with me and I often cringe whenever they come up; the first being the complete rejection – and undermining – Mike Dexter’s character arc.  The movie leads you to believe that Mike has turned over a new leaf when he takes the fall for William. Yet, when William thanks Mike at the diner the next morning, Mike denies knowing him and proceeds to mock William in front of his friends.  A title card then appears onscreen that informs us of Mike’s fate – he flunked out of college, gained forty pounds, and got fired from the car wash.  This irks me to no end. Granted, it fits in with Elfont and Kaplan’s cinematic world view: the party has been a humbling experience for Mike and fate has given him an opportunity to better himself, but he completely rejects it. I, personally, would rather see Mike be given a full redemption. The movie doesn’t necessarily have to end with William and him becoming BFFS, but at least have Mike and William give a slight nod of the head to each other. Sure, it is corny idea, but I find it preferable to the stereotype of “the dumb jock who amounts to nothing.” 

 

I’ve also never been sold on the idea that Denise would be so willing to sleep with Kenny, despite the bonding that goes on in the bathroom. This not the fault of the actors, but rather the writing – prior to them being locked in the bathroom together, it is never established that Kenny and Denise have a history together.  There is a brief moment where Denise makes fun of Kenny, but so does everyone else at the party.  The two of them hooking up always felt a bit contrived to me despite the sincerity of the performers.  

Finally, my least favorite scene in the movie: Cousin Ron making a move on Amanda!  
At the party Amanda runs into her second cousin (through marriage), Ron, and he offers up a sympathetic ear as she airs out her grievances. This, however, turns out to be a complete ruse on his part and, sensing that Amanda is vulnerable, he makes a pass at her.  Preston walks in, sees the two of them kissing, and assumes that this is consensual, and then leaves the party absolutely deflated. Seconds after he leaves, Amanda pushes Ron away, gives him a good scolding, and walks out of the room. Ron runs after her, pleading to her not to tell his mother.  The only reason Ron exists is to give Preston a crisis of faith. I hate it for two reasons:

1)      The filmmakers could have easily accomplished that same thing by having Preston walk in as Amanda and Ron share a friendly hug.  Or, have Amanda give Ron an affection kiss on the cheek. You don’t need Ron to be a complete lech in order for Preston to have a crisis of faith.

2)      It would be nice to meet one male who doesn’t have designs on Amanda. Practically every male she encounters at the party, other than Preston, is a horn dog that wants to shack up with Amanda. It would be a nice twist to have her meet a guy (her second cousin) who has zero interest in her. It wouldn’t be so redundant. 

There plenty of flaws with the script by Elfont and Kaplan, but they are extremely imaginative filmmakers.  My favorite part is how they link characters, in different locations, together throw creative editing and screen direction.  The movie opens on Preston and Denise at the graduation ceremony.  After Preston reveals his whole plan to Denise, they get in his car and drive off. The car drives out of the right side of the frame. 
CUT to. A long shot of Preston’s car, driving left to right in the frame, and then pan over to Mike and his friends at a fast food restaurant.  Mike convinces his cronies to dump their girlfriends and they get in his red pick up truck; the truck drives to the left and out of frame. 
CUT to. A long shot as a red, toy pick up truck rolls right to left into the frame. All of a sudden, a hand comes into frame and knocks the toy pick up truck over. The camera tilts up to reveal William Lichter.  He then explains his elaborate revenge plot to his two minions. The three of them walk upstairs as they appear on black and white surveillance monitor (that, for some reason, William has in his room).
CUT to. A long shot of a surveillance camera in an convenience store. The camera tilts down to reveal Kenny and his homeboys hanging out. 

This is a clever, and efficient, way to introduce each character. It keeps the movie going at a fast pace and, visually, gives us the information we need about each character.

 
Can’t Hardly Wait is not a great work of art, but it is great piece of entertainment. It helped kick off the teen comedy cycle that, for better or worse, would dominate the cinemas in the late 1990s/early 2000s; and would later be a parodied in Not Another Teen Movie. It is a much more imaginative movie than the later teen comedies, even though it wasn’t as big of a hit (She’s All That and Bring It On did better box office). It is also interesting to see familiar faces, before they hit stardom, in smaller roles: Selma Blair, Jason Segal, Clea DuVal, Marisol Nichols, Sara Rue, and Eric Balfour (to name a few).  It greatly helps that most of the main cast members were actual teenagers when the movie went into production (the only two exceptions being Peter Facinelli and Seth Green).  It's always a distraction when actors clearly in their mid-twenties to early-thirties play hip, young teenagers. 

Credits
Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt (Amanda Beckett), Ethan Embry (Preston), Lauren Ambrose (Denise), Charlie Korsmo (William), Peter Facinelli (Mike Dexter), Seth Green (Kenny), Jenna Elfman (The Angel), Melissa Joan Hart (Yearbook Girl), Erik Pallandino (Cousin Ron),  Jerry O’ Connell (Trip McNeely), Channon Roe (Jock #1), Sean Patrick Thomas (Jock #2), Freddy Rodriguez (Jock #3),  Michelle Brockhurst (Girl Whose Party It is), Joey Michaely (X-Phile #1), Jay Paulson (X-Phile #2), Jaime Pressley (Girlfriend #1), Tamala Jones (Girlfriend #2), Jennifer Lyons (Girlfriend #3),  Branden Williams (Homeboy #1), Robert Jayne (Homeboy #2), Chris Owen (Klepto Kid), Marisol Nichols (Groupie), Monica McSwain (Groupie), Alexander Martin (Exchange Student), Clea DuVall (Jana), Jason Segal (Watermelon Guy),  Breckin Meyer (Lead Singer), Donald Faison (Drummer), Johnny Zander (Guitar Player), Alec Ledd (Bass Player),  Nicole Bilderback (Ready to Have Sex Girl), Leslie Grossman (Ready to Have Sex Girl’s Friend), Victor Togunde (Reminiscing Guy), Selma Blair (Girl Mike Hits on #1), Jennifer Praz (Girl Mike Hits on #2), Brian Klugman (Stoner), Meadow Sisto (Hippie Girl), Eric Balfour (Hippie Guy), Sara Rue (Earth Girl).

Directors: Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan
Screenplay: Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan
Running Time: 100 min.

Josie and the Pussycats (2001)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – April 2001.  My Basic Elements of Film making instructor comes into the classroom completely irate; the source of her anger – the Josie and the Pussycats movie. She can’t believe that Hollywood has adapted a second rate Hanna Barbara cartoon into a full length theatrical feature.  It is, in her words, “the death of cinema!” It should be noted that she has not seen the movie, but has already declared it an “irredeemable piece of garbage.”   How can an adaptation of little loved 70s cartoon possibly be good?  

She must have felt vindicated when Josie and the Pussycats opened not only to poor reviews, but poor box office as well. It was a financial failure; grossing a pathetic $14,886,015 (worldwide) on a $39 million budget.  The critics were especially harsh in their assessment of the film; Roger Ebert gave it half a star.  While it may not have been “the death of cinema,” it essentially ended the movie careers of directing/writing team of Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont.

It has baffled me why Josie and the Pussycats performed so poorly at the box office. After all, a movie doesn’t necessarily have to be good in order to be a huge success; just look at the Transformers movies. There a few reasons, I believe, why the movie did extremely poor business:

1)      The source material.  As I mentioned earlier, Josie and the Pussycats wasn’t exactly a beloved cartoon.  In fact, I’m willing to bet that the only exposure most people had to Josie and the Pussycats was their guest appearance on The New Scooby Doo Movies; the cartoon was rarely shown on syndication.  In the 1990s, the Cartoon Network did air a few episodes before replacing them with a better known cartoon.  I remember catching one or two episodes and thinking to myself, “This is a second rate Scooby Doo!” 

 On the flip side, devoted fans (all three of them) of the cartoon would probably hate the movie adaptation, because, other than the name of the band, it has almost nothing in common with the show.  Even the music is different; in the cartoon, Josie and her pals played pop rock, whereas in the movie they are more punkish.

2)      The Teen Cycle.  In 2001, the cycle of teen movies was beginning to wear thin.  Audiences were beginning to get sick of these movies and were moving on to better things; two huge fantasy movies would open later that year to great commercial and critical success, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. Thus, beginning the rise of the nerd culture.  Hollywood rediscovered the teenage audience in 1996 with the release of Scream. It was a huge success, both financially and critically, and lead to countless imitations and sequels.  This would carry over to the music industry as well; in less than a year’s time the music charts would be dominated by boy bands and female pop singers (it’s important to remember this last point, because Josie and the Pussycats satires the whole teen music scene).  The problem with the teen audience is that it is in a constant state of flux; the same crowd that made Scream a hit in 1996 would probably have little desire to watch Josie and the Pussycats in 2001. Five years maybe a short time, but it’s a huge difference in the lives of teenagers. If Josie and the Pussycats would have been released a year or two earlier, then maybe, it would have done better at the box office. 

3)      Target audience. What audience was Josie and the Pussycats trying to reach? Universal tried to sell it as a teen comedy, but it really isn’t.  It lacks the tropes that are largely associated with the teen movie. For instance, it’s not set in a high school, nor is there a well choreographed dance scene at the movie’s climax.  Also, all teen comedies tend be small, self contained stories; they rarely leave their small town setting.  Josie and the Pussycats is a lot more epic in scope; the movie begins in the small town of Riverdale, but in flash the girls are flown to the big city to make their music dreams come true. There’s also a subplot involving the disappearance of a boy band, Du Jour.  It is a far more ambitious movie than She’s All That or Ten Things I hate About You, therefore, it probably wouldn’t resonate with a tween audience, who have grown accustomed to seeing  Freddie Prinze, Jr win the girl at the end.  It doesn’t work as nostalgia (like Scooby Doo did a year later), because the 1970s cartoon (and comic book) is too obscure. It surely didn’t appeal to the college crowd, largely because it was promoted as being yet another teen comedy.  It is certainly one of the oddest movies to ever come out of a major studio. 

I was working at North Shore Cinemas in 2001, which means I could see movies for free. So, on a whim, I decided to check out Josie and the Pussycats; I was curious to see just how bad it truly was. Maybe, it was due to my low expectations, but I walked out of the theatre completely surprised by the fact that I liked the movie. I was in denial over this fact for some time. I was a film student at UWM; I’m not supposed to like drivel like Josie and the Pussycats. After all, it signified the “Death of Cinema.” When people asked me about the movie, I would merely reply that “it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.” However, I was reluctant to admit I liked it. When I watched it again on cable, I finally had to face the reality of the situation…I LIKED JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS!  I would even go as far to say that it is a genuinely good movie, despite Roger Ebert’s negative review. However, a few critics stepped forward (namely Nathan Rabin of the Onion) and bravely admitted to liking the movie. It made me feel good to know that I was not alone. 

Josie and the Pussycats certainly has its share of flaws; the biggest among them is Tara Reid as the air headed drummer, Mel. Granted, it’s a role that perfectly suits Reid limitations as an actress, but her one note performance gets a bit tiresome after awhile.  Also, the fight scene between her and former TRL host (and ultra tool) Carson Daly completely falls flat! The fight ends with Reid telling Daly that she would never go out with a guy like him. This is an injoke (at the time) as Reid and Daly were dating in real life. It is a groan inducing moment!  It makes even less sense now, considering the two of them broke up shortly after the movie. Thankfully, this joke proves to be the exception rather than the rule.  It is a shame that the filmmakers allowed Daly to appear in the movie, as it dulls the satire; instead of being a merciless attack on the music industry, it’s merely a friendly slap on the wrist. 

While Josie and the Pussycats may fail as a satire, it does make some rather valid points about the music industry; the girls are signed by the record label not because they have any musical talent, but rather they have the right look. Image is everything and the music exec, Wyatt, realizes that the three of them would make a great CD cover.  They happen to be at the right place at the right time; Wyatt has really no interest in their music.  I often wonder how different Britney Spears’ career might have been had the video for “Baby, One More Time” been a rather bland and forgettable affair.  Would teenagers have responded to video if it consisted of her dressed in a t-shirt and jeans singing to some dude across a room, instead of her prancing about in a skimpy school girl outfit? It was essentially the video that sold the song, which, in turn, led to Britney Spears becoming a pop culture phenomenon.  Britney Spears is a great example about how the look is more important than the actual music.  Ditto with the Backstreets Boys and all the other teen sensations that were big in the late 90s.  The movie even acknowledges the short shelf life of most teen pop stars; in the beginning the boy band, Du Jour, is supposedly killed in a plane accident. There is a brief tribute to them on MTV News, which ends with an in memory of "Du Jour 2000 – 2001." It also announces that their record label is going to release special editions of their albums to commemorate this loss.  Their music is not so much a work of artistic expression as it is product that is meant to be consumed and forgotten about. 

Commercialism has run amuk in the world of Josie and the Pussycats; Du Jour’s personal jet airplane has the Target logo painted on its walls. One shot is framed so that when can of Dr. Pepper is thrown into the foreground is aligned with a huge Dr. Pepper billboard in the background. The McDonald's logo lines the walls of Mel's hotel shower.

Even the popular music is just another ad space; the powers that be want to use the girls’ music into brainwashing the youth of America into accepting the newest trends, which they hope to achieve by implanting subliminal messages into their songs.  Josie and her friends are unknowing pawns in this scheme; in one scene, which follows a quick montage of the girls literally climbing up the charts, Josie asks Val and Mel if they find their meteoric rise to the fame odd. They ponder this for a second and then in unison shout, “NO!”  Wyatt momentarily breaks a sweat, afraid that he might have to replace the girls with a much more agreeable band.  It is a cyclical occurrence; when Du Jour starts to get wise to the tinkering that has been done with their music, Wyatt orders them to be killed, and the parachutes out of the plane, along with the pilots, abandoning the boys to a (seemingly) fiery end.

Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont are an extremely flawed but interesting writing/directing team; their best known movie is probably Can’t Hardly Wait, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ethan Embry.  Their screenplays tend to be a bit muddled at times; this is especially true for Josie and the Pussycats, where supporting characters have a habit of disappearing for long stretches of the movie.  The character that suffers most is Alan M, Josie’s love interest, who fails to make an impression, because he is given very little to do. He comes off as kind of dense; it's not until Josie is given an elaborate make over that he notices that she's actually quite beautiful.  Who knows? Maybe Kaplan and Elfont were sending up She's All That, also starring Rachael Leigh Cook. The romance seems like an after thought; the filmmakers realized they had to appease some convention of the genre, so they shoe horned in Alan M.  It's amazing just how irrelevant he is to the entire story line.

A similar flaw can be found in Can’t Hardly Wait, when Denise (Lauren Ambrose) inexplicable ends up sleeping with Kenny (Seth Green), solely due to the fact that two of them share a pleasant moment (after endlessly bickering for most of the film). It feels absolutely forced and a complete betrayal of the Denise character; she's arguably the most interesting character in the movie, hence it's you feel cheated when she ends up with a loser like Kenny.

On the other hand, there are lot of creative visuals in the films of Kaplan and Elfont; the best example is the introduction of Josie and the Pussycats at the beginning of the film. The girls are seen in close ups, playing their instruments in an unspecified location. They perform a rousing rendition of the (catchy) song “Three Small Words,” then the camera pulls back to reveal that they are playing a gig at a bowling alley. The bowlers respond with complete indifference and carry on with their bowling; the girls are paid five dollars for their effort.  It’s an extremely effective introduction; through a single movement of the camera, we are told all we need to know about the girls and their current situation.  After the show, Josie comments that this may have been their best gig yet. Which makes you wonder what their other gigs must have been like. 

The funniest moment in the entire film is the reappearance of Du Jour at the end of the film. One of the members of the band, Les (Alexander Martin) emerges from the shadows and reveals that he successfully landed in the airplane, and now he, along with his band mates are going to stop Fiona from carrying out her nefarious scheme. The audience is lead to be that the cavalry has come to the rescue; then the camera pans over to reveal that other DuJour members are wrapped in body casts and and barely able to move. Les reveals that he landed the plane in the parking lot of a Metallica concert, and that their rowdy fans "kicked the crap" out of them.  It is an extremely funny pay off to the Du Jour story line.

It is also to Kaplan and Elfont's credit that the characters of Josie and Val never devolve into full fledged cartoon cartoons; they are the glue that holds everything together. If Rachael Leigh Cook and Rosario Dawson would have gone for a more broad, over the top approach, the movie would be overbearing and an absolute pain to watch.  It's easy to root for Josie and Val, because both are immensely likable characters. They also prove perfect foils Fiona (Parker Posey) and Wyatt (Alan Cumming). Posey is wonderfully over the top as the head of record company, Fiona, who despite her success suffers from an inferiority complex; the scene in which she tries to bond with the girls by holding a slumber party is both awkward and hilarious at the same time.  Cumming, however, steals the movie as the always scheming Wyatt. His icy cold demeanor is really a mask he wears, a way to distance himself from a painful childhood. He takes extreme delight in belittling those that he believes are his inferiors, and shows no signs of remorse when he orders Du Jour to be liquidated; murder is all in a day's work to him. 

Josie and the Pussycats is a from a perfect movie, but certainly wasn't deserving of the scorn that it received during its initial release in 2001. It is a fairly clever movie with genuinely fun and likable characters, and, most surprising of all, a fairly good soundtrack. There are certainly for worse ways you could spend your 99 minutes.

Cast: Rachael Leigh Cook (Josie), Rosario Dawson (Val), Tara Reid (Mel), Parker Posey (Fiona), Alan Cumming (Wyatt), Gabriel Mann (Alan M), Paulo Costanzo (Alexander), Missi Pyle (Alexandra), Alexander Martin (Les), Tom Butler (Agent Kelly) Seth Green (Travis), Breckin Meyer (Marco), Donald Faison (D.J.), Eugene Levy (himself), Carson Daly (himself),Aries Spears (the other Carson Daly). 

Directors: Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont.
Screenplay: Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont.
Running Time: 99 min.