He’s All That is a Gender Flipped version of the classic teen movie She's All That, with a dash of 10 Things I Hate About You, also gender flipped, alluded to for good measure, starring Addison Rae, Tanner Buchanan, Madison Pettis, Peyton Meyer, and featuring Rachael Leigh Cook, who played the female lead in the original movie, as Padgett’s mother.
After her humiliating breakup with her Jerkass boyfriend goes viral, social media influencer Padgett Sawyer (Rae), finds her reputation in tatters, both online and IRL. To win back public opinion and her sponsorships, as well as stick it to her ex, Padgett declares that she will use her makeover skills on a guy and make him handsome and popular enough to win prom king within a matter of weeks. The mission soon turns into a bet with her best friend, and to prove her skills, the lucky candidate must be an unpopular loser. Enter Cameron Kweller, an anti-social rebel photographer.
The race is on as Padgett puts her makeover expertise to work to transform Cameron from loser to Big Man on Campus. But the closer Padgett gets to Cameron, the more she finds herself falling for him. And with a backstabbing bestie and a recently-dumped ex who wants her back, Padgett finds that winning this bet might make her lose the things that are most important.
He’s All That was released on Netflix on August 27, 2021.
This film provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion:
- Cameron, played by Tanner Buchanan known for Cobra Kai, displays his fighting skills against Jordan.
- Addison Rae is a social media personality known for her TikTok dancing videos.
- Kourtney Kardashian, one of the golden Kardashian trio of media influence and entrepreneurship, plays Padgett’s biggest sponsor.
- Adaptational Villainy: Played with. In many aspects, Alden is a much worse False Friend than the original movie's Dean. While both do deliberately expose the bet to hurt their respective friends, Dean otherwise didn't bully and degrade Zack as much as Alden does to Padgett. But unlike Dean, Alden doesn't try to use Cameron and Padgett's Second-Act Breakup to make a move on Cameron.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Subverted. Cameron is the horse guy, and Padgett doesn't even know what a pony is. By the end of the film, he's taught her to ride (in two lessons, one of which involved throwing poo at each other), and he comes to the prom on a horse.
- Alpha Bitch: Even though Alden is more of a Beta Bitch to Padgett, Padgett is kind and sweet, making Alden more of the traditional mean queen, even if she’s not all the way at the top.
- Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Inverted. Padgett, the sweet one, is the most popular girl in school, and more stereotypical mean girl Alden is her second-in-command. Alden plots against Padgett by deliberately not stopping the livestream when Padgett had her meltdown and stealing her boyfriend so she will have a better shot at winning prom queen against Padgett.
- Bad Influencer: Padgett's boss is pretty bitchy, pulling her sponsorship over a snot bubble.
- Big Damn Kiss: It's a teen rom com, of course it comes late in the third act.
- Big Jerk on Campus: Thanks to Padgett’s makeover skills, Jordan Van Draanan went from unpopular loser to a popular singer on social media with hundreds of followers. Sadly, he really let the fame and popularity go to his head, as he cheats on his girlfriend with one of his backup dancers and sexually harasses a high school freshman girl.
- Big Brother Instinct: Cameron gets into a fight with Jordan at Alden's birthday party after Jordan to make a move on his sister Brin.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Alden pretends to be Padgett’s friend while secretly looking down at her for pretending to be rich and envying her popularity at school, and takes the first opportunity she can to betray and humiliate Padgett to drag her down and steal prom queen from her.
- Broken Pedestal: Brin was enamored with Padgett’s ex, aspiring hip-hop singer Jordan, even after he was caught into cheating on his girlfriend. She was over the moon when he started hitting on her…until he tried to get a little more than kissing out of her, after which she sees the disgusting Jerkass he really is.
- Celebrity Crush: Brin had a huge one on Jordan, even to the point of overlooking him cheating on Padgett. Until he made a move on her.
- Class Princess: Padgett is a famous Instagram influencer with sponsorships and thousands of followers, dating the coolest guy in school. Even after her dry spell following her breakup, Padgett bounces back and wins prom queen.
- Dance-Off: An overly long one at prom, between Padgett's existing dance club and the new one that Jordan and Alden start...a few weeks before the end of school.
- Dirty Old Woman: Cameron's grandmother, who makes inappropriate jokes about sex, but she comes across as more of a Cloud Cuckoolander.
- Face–Heel Turn: Discussed with Alden. Whether this is what happened to her or if she was just always like that and only chose to show it when she did.
- Fallen Princess: Padgett is a social media queen with millions of Instagram followers and a high-end sponsorship with a big name brand, but after a livestream shows her having a meltdown, and shows a booger bubble coming out of her nose, her online reputation goes in the toilet, as her snotty face becomes a meme, and she is dubbed “Bubble Girl”.
- The Flapper: Padgett and several of the other girls dress as flappers for a The Great Gatsby themed party. Except Nisha, who goes dressed as the more tomboyish character Jordan Baker.
- Girl Posse: Just like Zach and his buddies were big shots in the original movie, Class Princess Padgett and her friends Quinn and Alden are the most popular girls in school.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: Before his Makeover Montage, Cameron wears sloppy clothes that are sometimes grimy, with long hippie hair and a beard, and even his sister is ashamed to be seen with him. After the montage, he is teen heartthrob material.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Alden and Quinn's painful rendition of "The Boy is Mine." Possibly to make Padgett's thin warble on "Teenage Dream" seem better.
- Humiliating Wager: Discussed, but the terms of the bet aren't really outlined until the very ending.
- Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: Padgett plans to livestream her surprising her boyfriend, Jordan, at the set of his new music video, only to walk in on him cheating on her with one of his backup dancers. She has a meltdown and throws the pastries at him while screaming and declaring that she was breaking up with him, only to find out that she was still live on Instagram. The camera captures a closeup on her face, showing a mucus bubble coming out of her nose, and the Internet goes on to dub her “Bubble Girl”, and it becomes a meme and spreads through the rest of the Web.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Quinn, Padgett’s best friend, who adores fashion and makeup, and is part of Padgett and Alden’s Girl Posse. She ends up with Cameron’s best friend, Nisha. The relationship is portrayed very interestingly, as no one expresses any negative emotions towards their romance, nor is their attraction to each other treated as a big deal. To the other characters, they’re just two people who really like each other. Technically subverted as Quinn’s sexual orientation is never specified during the film (nor is that of Nisha, who leans towards Butch Lesbian in terms of character tropes).
- Love at First Note: When Cameron hears Padgett singing.
- Makeover Montage: Can’t have a She’s All That remake without one. Padgett buys Cameron new clothes, shaves off his facial hair and cuts his long hair.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Alden wins the bet, but she loses prom queen, not just once, but twice, plus she’s humiliated in front of the whole school when they announce she came in fourth place.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Padgett and her two best friends, Alden and Quinn, who are the Girl Posse at school. Alden is the mean one, the False Friend who stabs Padgett in the back to advance in the Popularity Food Chain. Quinn, the Lipstick Lesbian, is the nice one who is Padgett’s biggest supporter and cheerleader, and doesn’t care that and understands why Padgett lied about her background. Padgett is in between, as she lies to and tries to use Cameron to salvage her own reputation, although she has sympathetic motives, as wanting to get back her sponsorships for college money after being humiliated by her cheating boyfriend, and later has a Jerkass Realization and bares her soul at prom, forfeiting her prom queen crown.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Brin is able to fight off Jordan's unwanted advances by hitting him with a pool ball.
- Precision F-Strike: Just like Laney from the original movie, Cameron drops one when he finds out that Padgett initially only befriended him for her bet with Alden.
- Product Placement: Might as well be "Product Placement: The Movie." Pepsi Co products (Smart Food, Doritos, water bottles, Pizza Hut and KFC) are featured prominently, to the point where the actors hold them unnaturally, and announce the products they're about to consume.Can I get some KFC to go?
- Rearrange the Song: "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer is rearranged with a dance track over the end credits, which feature Hilarious Outtakes.
- Remake Cameo:
- Rachael Leigh Cook who played Laney in the original film, is featured as Padgett's divorced mother.
- Also in the original, Matthew Lillard played the sleazy reality star that Zach’s girlfriend dumped him for. He now appears in the remake as the principal.
- Shirtless Scene: Jordan practically half the time. Lampshaded twice, first during the birthday party, he and Cameron are about to fight and Jordan again takes off his shirt. Cameron asks why Jordan is taking his shirt off, with even Jordan not sure why he took his shirt off. The second time, after Jordan wins Prom King, he's about to take off his shirt when the principal holds up a hand to stop him.
- Tanner Buchanan only gets one Shirtless Scene, though he spent most of the second season of Cobra Kai shirtless.
- That Came Out Wrong: Padgett and Cameron each get a moment. Undermined a bit by explaining that it wasn't intentional.
