from my fair lady to he's all garbage 

“She shouldve feigned an interest in photography. Forget about the horses” I disagree. They shouldve abandoned the photography and went all in on the horses. Make Cameron a massive horse girl. Have him know so much about horses it’s concerning

The fact that M. Night wrote Shes all that IS the twist 😂

38:34 "The bet should have centered around getting him followers." And just like that, Julia Cudney displays a better understanding of social media than movie business professionals.

30:25 "The tricky thing about comedy though is it's supposed to be funny" The most casually savage thing I've ever heard

The only times I see older people writing young people well is in books. The person that comes to mind is Rick Riordan, who consistently hits the mark when portraying a large variety of young characters despite currently being almost 60

when me and my brother watched he's all that as soon as a horse showed up on screen he was like "oh no its one of *these* movies" and honestly im still haunted by it. is there an epidemic of bad horse-related teen romcoms?????

To be fair, Clueless is a really faithful adaptation of Emma, just “modernized”

I want a makeover movie where two "not-like-other-girls" tropes fix each other. like one seemingly well put together and to herself well intentioned addison rae takes a "i-don't-wear-make-up-dating-is-dumb-and-i-love-books" rachel leigh under her wing to make her more classically feminine just to realize they're both putting up fronts to keep from getting hurt. addison rae gets to relax and not be perfect. rachel leigh realizes she can be traditionally feminine without losing any self respect. essentially, they both realize they only need to care what they think about themselves not others. just an idea.

Matthew lillard knew it would be bad yet he still showed up and showed out. King sh**

the way you make THE definitive video on he's all that, even months after it trended online... now THATS excellence

If you're looking for more Pygmalion retellings I'd highly recommend the novella Galatea by Madeline Miller. It's super dark but Miller does an amazing exploration of Galatea's character and the intense misogyny of Pygmalion.

6:51 “he can’t have truly ‘made a woman’ until eliza has outgrown him” !! i love this sentence omg and u tossed it out so casually but this could be a pygmalion essay thesis EDIT: “this movie looks like if lele pons had a slightly bigger budget” “i think they were going for a comedic effect; the tricky thing about comedy, though, is that it’s supposed to be funny” as ALWAYS, coming through with the dry zingers that make me snort and need to rewind

I was surprised to hear that people saw the ending of Ruby Sparks to be happy lol. I thought it was horrifying, that he would take advantage of the fact that she had no idea of the abuse and manipulation he inflicted on her to give himself a second chance.

I feel like the Duff was more of a Pygmalion/My Fair Lady story then She’s All That

that "initiate self-destruct" scene just convinced me to watch that disney channel movie like DAMN

There’s a brazilian soap opera called totalmente demais which is an adaptation of my fair lady too. In that, she also outgrows her mentor and he lets her go to be with her other love interest, he even supports it. I never really reflected on it beyond shipping and such (i preferred the other guy anyways) but when seeing through the lens of the original work, it’s definitely the superior ending.

Somewhere in an alternate universe, there's an M. Night version of "He's All That" where the lead makes a bet that she can make a loser internet famous and he turns out to be a total monster and when that comes to light, she loses all her followers as well, and it spirals into a psychological horror film about the dangers of fame+making personal details about your life readily available on the internet.

The 2018 Broadway version of My Fair Lady changed the ending, and Eliza walks out at the end. I saw it live and thought it was absolutely perfect and very needed. Check it out!

The clip for "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" was perfectly used. I wanted to scream into the void now 😂

On The Street Where You Live is such sweetly romantic song!!! It expresses so well the way that loving another person makes the world seem more magical and beautiful. I love the line about how you cant hear a lark in any other part of town, bc of course you can, it's just that his love for her makes him aware of all the wonderful things in the world he'd taken for granted before. It's such a lovely portrayal of infatuation imo

Pixel perfect is also a Pygmalion story that doesn't end with Creation hooking up with the creator

Happy new year’s Julia Thanks for the breakdown of my fair lady people don’t realize how much of a great musical/film it is, it’s one of my favorites

"The tricky thing about comedy is that it's supposed to be funny." I love you

Awwww yeahhhh I’m in the hospital with appendicitis and my dad just brought me my laptop. Pretty sure I just spooked the nurses at the sound I made when I saw this in my subscriptions. Thank you to the queen of bad movies for giving me something to watch while in recovery😭💕💕💕

HAD was giving big Disney Channel movie vibes. The commercial feeling you described is real

As someone who was in high school when She's All That came out. It was strictly advertised as a teen romantic comedy from MTV and that's about it

finally a commentary youtuber that makes pop culture comparisons and references that i can understand... aka musical theatre. love this video glad to have you back!

I HATE my fair lady but I love audrey hepburn so much it's truly a struggle:(

The way I'd describe the aesthetic of he's all that is "impersonal" the sets and cinematography are so safe and oddly lifeless that you can't truly feel connected to the characters or what they're going through

with she's all that and ikwydls, its like filmmakers are just picking a movie out of freddie prinze jr's filmography and rebooting it

i have to be honest, i grew up obsessed with she’s all that. it wasn’t until HAT that people told me it wasn’t that popular and i feel so confused because the movie has been apart of my life since i can even remember! it kinda breaks my heart that the discourse is usually negative around SAT because it got me into rom coms as a whole … it has its flaws, but it still means everything!

I remembered looking at the timeline and going "how is Julia going to wrap this up?" And then the conclusion came and I laughed very hard

“That’s not Cali High, that’s Beacon Hills”. DEAD. How did I NOT notice that?!🤡🤦🏻‍♀️

you can’t discuss the myth of pygmalion without discussing the hercules: the animated series interpretation of the myth where Aphrodite gets so fed up with hercules’s wish to make Galatea beautiful that she turns Galatea into a giant clay monster that shoots clay out of her hands

Matthew Lillard is awesome haha "no please no. No one should do it." Yeah I also do not blame him anyway lmao

I think a big issue in writing characters that are teens is that they’re aren’t written as actual people or developed fully, they’re written as how the author percieves teens/the younger generation and puts them in the same old troupes.

I think in order to understand the youth of today is to consume the content/artistry that they make. My grandmother does this quite often, where she avidly hangs around younger people, reads books made by young authors and keeps an open mind when listening to their experiences and opinions. The thing with older people in the industry is that they don’t actually take the time to understand the youth; they just take a couple of terms and slap it onto a mediocre script.

Love that you're leaning toward highlighting nuance and context in your analysis--I think increasingly more creators on RU-vid (at least in my leftist bubble) are pushing in that direction but it's still refreshing to watch a video that makes a specific argument, resists dealing in absolutes, and doesn't run for two hours.

Dear RU-vid- I can’t believe you didn’t show me this sooner. Really annoying that this amazing content creator had such a wonderful video out for four days before showing up on my recommended. Also wow @ her hair is so beautiful. Thank you for the sound of your voice

I call the act of adding someone who can actually sing to purposely sound bad compared to the lead who’s pursuing a musical career The Victorious Effect.

YESSSS JULIA IS BACK FOR THE NEW YEARRRR WE LOVE TO SEE IT

I lovedddd this video, I never knew the history of Shaw’s version and I never really knew why I felt so negative about My Fair Lady (aside from the fact that Rex Harrison as a romantic lead has never ever made a lick of sense to me) but you articulated it completely.

I always remembered that My Fair Lady ends after "I've grown accustomed to her face" in a way where Eliza doesn't marry Henry but they become friends as (more like) equals. I've seen it countless times, but my mom tells me they marry, and I don't know why I just don't remember that.

as someone who has, of these three main movies discussed, only seen My Fair Lady, but has also seen most of Psych, this video has really thrown me for a loop.

my mum and i watched my fair lady (my first time) on christmas day - we had nothing else to do and it truly shocked me how misogynistic it was still love audrey hepburn though!

julia you’re so good at making these, please become a film critic ! you’ve definitely got a natural gift for this sort of thing

the pipeline that needs to be talked about

Hey Julia! I'm glad you are uploading again. Happy new year and kisses from Argentina!

I think you're absolutely right: It's all about getting eyeballs on the screen. Too many creators aren't trying to make anything of quality, just things that get viewed, especially by hate watchers. Because that also gets online clicks. No such thing as bad publicity, right?

I love the Daddy Long Legs inclusion!! Such a great and underrated musical! Lovely video as always!

This is my favorite video of yours simply because of how in depth of philosophy you used and understand. I tried to watch He's All That simply because She's version is part of my childhood and I couldn't finish it.

still waiting for that revisit of mean girls 2 bestie dont think ive forgotten

For another modern retelling of My Fair Lady you could check out ABC's short lived series Selfie from 2014. It is explicitly stated as a retelling of MFL, unlike SAT where it allegedly could be but likely isn't. it unfortunately got cancelled within a few episodes of airing(and to be fair the first couple episodes were a bit hard to get through), but they did release the whole season on digital. And actually had quite the cult following trying to save the show from cancellation and actually had a brief resurgence on social media as it reached chinese audiences with great approval.

great video! to add on to the point about how poorly teen life and social media is portrayed, i think the show american vandal is a great recent example of how teens interact with social media. the show captures how teens have a relatively passive relationship with social media and refrains from conflating popularity with fame. when the audience sees the teen characters’ social media, it’s refreshing to see realistic posts, follower counts that aren’t astronomically high, and internet language being used in moderation and properly. the show also does a great job of portraying the nature of going viral without sensationalizing the situation and highlighting the very temporary nature of going viral when you’re not initially famous. in my opinion, the show is criminally underrated, and i highly recommend watching at least the first season to see decent teen representation in recent years

“throwing the ol’ horse sh*t around” LOL JULIA

i'd say 8th grade is the best exception to the rule that older people can't seem to write engaging stories about youthful characters anymore. granted, i don't think the target audience was younger people, so that might throw a wrench into my argument.

I can't believe you mentioned Daddy Long Legs! No one ever mentions that spectacular work it's a tragedy... (tbf to the misogyny argument, I have not read that book since I was a child but I loved it then because 9 year olds don't understand misogyny).

This video, in tandem with Lindsay Ellis's departure from RU-vid, really makes me feel like Julia is her spiritual successor

omg I loved "How to Build a Better Boy" as a kid

This was a interesting little journey, thought it would be a breakdown of he’s all that but along the way I learnt about Pygmalion and my fair lady. Intrigued the whole way through as well.

I could listen to you talk about things all day. Also I love the Ruby Sparks reference!

I think She's All That is liked and remembered fondly by people who were teens and tweens at the time because ugly duckling was THE trope of the late 90's. There was "Never Been Kissed" (which apparently has been renamed "College Attitude" on Drew Barrymore's imdb page), Brittany Murphy's character in "Clueless", "Ever After", the character Willow on Buffy had a few instances of dealing with the trope, especially in season 2's Halloween episode. There's also "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" but a little later in 2002. And of course "Mean Girls" in 2004. As for older writers writing good teen media, my first thought was Buffy, but turns out Whedon was only 33 when the 1st season aired. Otherwise, Daria comes to mind. I can't find Susie Lewis' age anywhere, but her co-creator, Glenn Eichler, was 41 when Daria started airing in 1997.

im so glad your backkk i was feeling seperation anxiety from your monthly videos.

i've missed your videos!! i did a huge musical watch this summer and the ending of my fair lady just came out of nowhere. somehow my favorite version of pygmalion is still the random star trek voyager episode based on it

I feel like Pygmalion themed stories will always have a place in our society,despite them not having a clear(or positive) message for that matter. They unequivocally hint towards constant unrealistic expectations men and women have for one another. And those never really go away. Another point I thought I`d make in passing,is that I`d argue it`s considerably HARDER for older people to write from teen`s or preteen`s point of view,just based on how quick and often the vocabulary,thought process and goals change today. I`m barely fully out of high school(one year) and I doubt I`d be able to faithfully write a believable teen character. I can`t imagine trying that undertaking in your 50s.

Is this also the born sexy trope? Like super hot girl that has no knowledge of the "world" and is basically a child to the main love interest, and the main love interest has to "teach" her everything and shapes her into what He wants

I had to pause and say something about this because you just told me there is a musical based on one of my childhood favourite-yet-I-am-emotionally-confused-about-this books, and it is AMAZING? I think I will reread Daddy-Long-Legs now and this time I will picture Jervis SpongeBob Pendleton III singing about being a disappointment and I will feel a lot less emotionally confused about it. Thank you, back to the video, which is excellent so far.

i read bernard shaw’s pygmalion last year in my senior english class, great video and great nostalgia 🥰

Thank you for this video! And I love how you mention the influence of Pygmalion and My Fair Lady in all of this and similar stories. Also I do have to say that in some ways I feel sorry for Tanner Buchanan who plays Cameron, because it's really not his fault that the script was so bad. He as an actor deserves better. I even think Addison Rae who I'm not a fan of, really was done dirty by the writing in this film. Again lovely video, always great to hear your opinion on things!

she has returned

Happy new year Juila! Also excited to watch this video

With my fair lady, stop watching the film when his mother asks him what he expected and it cuts to his reaction. Works so well. We don't get I am accustomed to her face or her coming back to him which is fully nonsensical. You already have the heterosexual love interest in Freddie. Leave her character arc intact

I appreciate your sense of humor so much! Another awesome video!

Truly a powerful line to end the video on in my humble opinion

how you gunna sit there for 20 minutes talking about Gallatea and NOT talk about the Hercules animation series in which this was re-done with Hercules, Aphrodite, Aphrodite, Aphroditteeee (the goddess of Love) and he asks her to make his woman statue real so he has a date to the dance and Aphrodite asks him what he wants in his ideal woman and Aphrodite is like "and what about her PERSONALITY?" to which he just wants her to be madly in love with him. Aphrodite does it and by the end... Gallatea goes crazy, Hercules asks Aphrodite to make her REAL, not a creation of his desires but a real woman... and in the end, she rejects him and moves on because she was never his object.

Rewatching this and I just wanted to say your hair looks amazing

YESSS,welcome back julia,can wait to see the Cinderella movie(Amazon) in the garbage movie

Absolutely love the unique look you gave us into HAT! I feel like I've watched so many videos berating this movie that it started to get so repetitive, no matter how much I liked the creator doing it. But your videos are always so intelligent where redundancy isn't something I worry about!

I liked your videos before, but this more in-depth analytical approach is so much more interesting to me, as a consumer of media, as a girl, and as a writer. Keep the good work up!

Glad for the musical references and I might finally check out Daddy Long Legs. Also, I am in the group of people that likes My Fair Lady for the music, Audrey, and the clothes yet dislikes the main romantic couple. The ending is always a downer tbh tho it might be my bias showing for smitten rich Freddy (whose actor also played Sherlock Holmes!).

Glad that your still making videos even if it isn’t what I originally watched you for. Your videos are still really good

I think the problem with older people writing younger people in these specific cases where it’s not executed well I always noticed it’s because there’s always these teeny bits of disingenuousness to them. You can sense this slight resentment toward “the youth” and the way they act and I think it just seeps out in the writing so you can’t really relate to the characters because they’re never written with genuine intent. I think that’s why it’s always so nice when it actually is done well because I don’t feel that subtle resentment for youth gone past. Sometimes it can be done so well because of a genuine care for what people are actually going through during such a pivotal point in their lives. I think of Eight Grade, Edge of Seventeen, and Booksmart. I’m so much older now but those movies brought me right back to when I was that age and it felt so real at times, painfully so sometimes. That just reflects in the care of the writing. Which is the fundament flaw with these types of films. There’s no care put into them.

I can't even tell you how excited I was to say that you uploaded Julia! And I very much agree that the two things I enjoyed from He's All That were that song and the lesbian couple.

Juliaaaaa ❤️ I missed you, I hope you have a wonderful 2022

30:25 the way I screamed 😭 Also, welcome the fuck back! I miss you taking things of seemingly no consequence and taking them seriously.

yaaaas drag them queen julia starting the year off right!!

I have seen a few youtubers cover this movie already but yours is the first one to really talk about how she's all that is itself a retelling of a retelling not just a movie that's been remade. Totally respect the background information you laid out instead of just complaining about the cheesiness and product placement. Edit: I just got to the part where you say it might not even be a retelling! I was always told it was!

I've been watching your videos for awhile now and I just wanna say I love your energy and your voice is so calming!

DADDY LONG LEGS IS SUCH A FREAKING GOOD MUSICAL ANYWAYS

THE QUEEN IS BACK!!!!!!! You’ve been so missed!!!🥺♥️

Teen media works whenever the material is taken seriously - which sadly comes from TV writers more than movie ones. It seems like all these older men view teen celebs purely for their salesmanship - a.k.a they can get kids to buy things - or a vehicle to push their boomer views of "social media is bad because I don't understand it" and the like. And side note: While most people watched and liked She's All That, it wasn't some instant cult classic like Clueless. If anything, it was kinda forgettable - a lot like Drive Me Crazy - compared to films released in the same year, like Cruel Intentions, Jaw Breaker, Never Been Kissed, 10 Things I Hate About You; even Varsity Blues was more popular at the time. Most people watched it because of Freddie Prince Jr. Everyone loved him because he was dating Sarah Michelle Gellar, since she was mega popular, and he was still riding the fame from the first I Know What You Did Last Summer movie. So to remake it...makes no sense.

Missed your videos so much!!! Your brain is as exquisite as always 🧠

I want to remind you of that one that’s so raven episode where they parodied a makeover show and raven did up an art geek and they both had feelings for each other but then he was never seen again

First and Foremost you have succeeded in getting me interested in Daddy Long Legs and after hearing The Oldest Orphan in the John Grier Home I'm in love so this will now become my personality for the next month. I'm always looking for new Musicals to listen to (plus I will watch the movie bc I love Leslie Caron) so thank you! Also I've only watched 2 of your videos and I'm already a fan so subscribed!

I really liked She’s All That. :( but I understand it’s not the best in themes, it is very 90s.

I hate Henry Higgings so much that I wrote a twitter thread saying how much I hated him with tons of quotes and a lot of salt. I had like 9 subscribers and none of them cared and I never did a twitter thread before but I hate Henry Higgings with a passion

I'm so glad you're back!! great vid as always :))

It’s always a blessing when Julia posts. Also, did you private your Bughead edited in different ways video?

I loved this movie!! It wasn't good mind you, but I loved it so much. Even though dumb, I found myself (against my will) completely invested in the (albeit 1-dimentional) characters and their goals. The plot was dumb, but I liked some parts in it. I liked how painfully unaware everyone was. They all felt so disconnected from reality which (for me) kind of worked, it's like they live in their own strange universe. I like how the main characters build on each other, he helps her accept she doesn't have to be perfect and she helps him accept that it's okay to like mainstream things and to look good. For all the flaws I found the movie strangely endearing, a bit clunky, but kind of cute. Also there was a lil lesbian rep which is also nice to see :)

"Add my name to the credits. I Edited your movie" lmaooo why is this how i think about every movie when i just figure out how i would have done it in my mind a;sdklfja;d