25 Years Later ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ Still Encapsulates and Nails Universal Stereotypes

Gil Junger's cult classic might be dated, but it's as amusing and uplifting as ever

I miss stereotypes. Let me rephrase that: I miss some aspects of stereotypes. Back in high school, there was something comforting about knowing what people were like, and which clique they belonged to, just by simply looking at them. Rappers wore baggy pants and oversized t-shirts, goths dressed in all black, and hippies looked like homeless people with long, unkempt hair and rugged clothes. Whether you glanced at jocks, nerds, freaks, outlaws, or the coolest kids, you instantly knew where they belonged — and where you belonged — in the hierarchy. There was no doubt: everyone’s inward personality was at least 80 percent accurate to how they dressed and behaved.

Early on in Gil Junger's classic rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You, which turns 25 at the end of the month, there’s a scene where the unpopular (and invisible) geek Michael (David Krumholtz) shows the shy new guy Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) around, pointing out the different cliques of the school. You know, the popular ones, rastas, coffee kids, yuppies, jocks, and so on. Essentially, it’s a breakdown of certain types of people based on general stereotypes. You couldn’t boil this down today as simply as he does because teenagers have a thousand layers to their identities these days — not to mention that it would be offensive to say that they’re strictly one type or another. Political correctness has come a long way, for better or worse.

But 10 Things I Hate About You is aware of its own categorizing of social classes (it’s based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, after all) and uses it to its advantage. Clearly, it’s a product of a different era (which is basically a euphemism for outdated), and watching it today almost feels as if its not-giving-a-damn-about-being-PC attitude is intentional and purposefully edgy. Yet you didn’t think that in 1999 at all — there was nothing odd about its simplistic portrayal of youth. In fact, it’s the very reason the film holds up because the thought of offending anyone (or being insensitive) wasn’t on the minds of its screenwriters. Their script is witty and entertaining because it doesn’t try to please everyone.

Quite the opposite: the story plays out seemingly uncomplicated and conventional stereotypes just so it can turn them on their heads by the end. It's "bad boy meets smartass girl," which is as cliched and predictable as it gets, yet it all comes across as refreshingly old-school. Yes, we all know by heart what the plot is — school outlaw seduces the stuck-up yet sensitive shrew for money but accidentally falls for her — and the eventual outcome is as definite as the happy end in a Disney movie. But the protagonists change and evolve beyond their stereotypes just enough to become not only likable but relatable to older and younger generations, too.

See, Heath Ledger’s Patrick is kind of an asshole at first: he seems like one of the school’s bad guys. He smokes, he drinks, and he's got a dangerous reputation based on ridiculous rumors about how much of a freak he is. It's all high-school myth, though, but he gladly plays into it. In the first act, we aren’t meant to like him, even if his romanticized bad-boy persona suggests otherwise. Naturally, there’s a compassionate and caring heart under his rough exterior, but we only get a few glimpses of it while he tries to seduce and mislead Julia Stiles' Kat. He might be falling in love with her, but we don't know that for sure until the one-hour mark when he’s finally willing to make a fool out of himself in front of the marching band and the female football team. His embracing of vulnerability (and the risk of being ridiculed) is the turning point where we see him for what he really is: a fundamentally nice guy with some personal issues.

It helps that Ledger’s charisma was out of this world even at 20. He’s been a master of being raw yet subtle, never ostentatious or boasting, ruling the screen with a delicate dominance that was usually in balance with his characters. But Stiles’ Kat has a similar trajectory, too. In the beginning, she’s irritating and snobbish, an annoying know-it-all who always wants to come across as cleverer and more mature than she actually is. Kat acts like an adult with the vivacious heart of a shy little girl. And just like Ledger, Stiles strikes a perfect balance of conveying the highs and lows and mood swings of her throughout the movie. By the end, she turns out to be much more considerate and selfless than she made us believe at the start.

10 Things I Hate About You has become a cult classic in the past 25 years because it nailed the universal truth about stereotypes: there’s always more to them than what’s seen on the surface. It’s a clear message effectively emphasizing that regardless of how others perceive us (as children, teenagers, or adults), we all possess feelings, thoughts, and secrets that make us unique.

Despite trying to maintain an image and reputation that we firmly believe will make us cool and popular — communicating how we want to be viewed and which clique or class we aim to belong to — that’s rarely true to who we are at our core. That’s only shown at our most vulnerable when we open ourselves up to someone and risk being humiliated, exposed, or rejected. Because the other possible outcome is what we all desperately hope for, regardless of age, race, or class: to be loved for who we really are. And there’s no better microcosm to showcase that than in a high school and its brutal social hierarchy, at an age when we are in the middle of transition between childhood and adulthood.

10 Things I Hate About You not only understands this perfectly but revels in it throughout its runtime until the sweet and crowd-pleasing happy ending.

You can rent 10 Things I Hate About You on Amazon Prime and Disney+.

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Last week, I reviewed Amazon Prime’s latest buddy comedy Ricky Stanicky for Looper, in which John Cena delivers one of his funniest performances.

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