'Can't Buy Me Love'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons and Juliet Litman go from totally geek to totally chic after rewatching 'Can't Buy Me Love', starring Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson.
Cast
Patrick Dempsey as Ronald Miller
Amanda Peterson as Cindy Mancini
Seth Green as Chucky
Courtney Gaines as Kenneth
Directed by: Steve Rash
Written by: Michael Swerdlick
Notes
- Original title was 'Boy Rents Girl'.
- 35th anniversary episode.
- Choreography by Paula Abdul.
- Budget was ~$1.7 million; grossed $31.6 million. Disney's second-ever licensed/acquired film – sold to Disney (Eisner/Katzenberg) for $6 million.
- Patrick Dempsey used his entire salary to buy a 1963 Porsche 356 convertible. A year after the movie, he married a 48-year-old woman connected to his family.
- Amanda Peterson was 15 during filming while Dempsey was 20.
- Shot at Tucson High School; the production paid back the school by building them a football field and stage.
- Courtney Gaines said the studio wanted to remove 'you shit on my house' for being too edgy; producers fought to keep it.
- Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men) wrote a song for the movie.
- A crew strike occurred during filming; striking crew members are visible picketing during the cheerleader scenes.
- The airplane graveyard is the Pima County Air Museum near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.
- Patrick Dempsey and Seth Green later reunited for a 2-episode arc on Grey's Anatomy.
- Cited as highly influential on later high school movies: 'Easy A', '10 Things I Hate About You', 'Mean Girls', 'Can't Hardly Wait', Drive Me Crazy, and Beverly Hills 90210.
- Love Don't Cost a Thing (2003) with Nick Cannon was a direct remake.
- Amanda Peterson died at age 43 of an accidental drug overdose.
Categories
Quote from Rog's review:
“The people who made this movie are so materialistic that they actually think this is a teenage comedy.”
- One of the lowest ratings they've ever had on The Rewatchables.
- Ebert savaged the film's values: 'If cynicism had been its target, we might be on to something here. Can't they see the screenplay's rotten core.'
- Both Bill and Juliet pick 'You shit on my house' – Kenneth confronting Ronald at the arcade.
- Other candidates: the African Anteater Ritual dance scene, the airplane graveyard date, the lawn mower ride-off ending, and Cindy's exposure speech at the party.
- Young Patrick Dempsey – seeing him before Grey's Anatomy stardom.
- Cindy's 1986 Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible.
- 1980s Tucson, Arizona as a filming locale.
- 'Easy A' (2010) paying deliberate homage to the movie.
- Seth Green as little brother Chucky.
- Cindy's fashion – long skirts with short boots, crop tops, jeans – still fashionable today.
- Ronald's first outfit: NASA T-shirt and Adidas sneakers would be trendy and expensive now.
- The $1,000 price still works as a concept.
- Amanda Peterson was 15 and Patrick Dempsey was 20 during filming.
- Repeated use of the R-word slur and 'special ed' as an insult.
- The 'African Anteater Ritual' naming and cultural stereotyping.
- Women's locker room scenes – male gaze, unrealistic portrayal of high school girls.
- Bobby the college boyfriend's terrible acting.
- Cindy's mom's date hitting on Cindy.
- Amanda Peterson: sadly, yes.
- Lawn mowers: yes – best use of a lawn mower in a movie.
- Courtney Gaines: yes.
- Volkswagen Cabriolet: unquestionably yes.
- Tucson, AZ: possibly (also has Raising Arizona).
- Patrick Dempsey: no – Grey's Anatomy is his apex.
Courtney Gaines as Kenneth – the look-away De Niro moment after 'You shit on my house.'
- Bill's pick: Seth Green as Chucky – took the character and ran with it.
- Juliet's pick: Cindy's mom – important to framing Ronald; 'Did I forget to pay you?'; bought the white suede outfit that enables the whole plot.
Cindy's two friends should have been recast with actual teenagers: Julia Roberts, Jennifer Connelly, Christina Applegate, Winona Ryder, Shannen Doherty, or Alyssa Milano.
Courtney Gaines – Malachi from Children of the Corn.
- Bill: one of the most important and most ripped-off high school movies ever.
- Juliet: Bobby calling Cindy a 'prostitute' at the party is essential to the movie working structurally.
Opening credits: The Beatles' 'Can't Buy Me Love.' Michael Jackson (who owned the Beatles catalogue) was paid $110,000 to license it.
Ronald's parents – the dad could have been funnier, the mom was a throwaway character.
- Never sell your friends out.
- Don't borrow your mom's best piece of clothing.
- Stay yourself – don't change to please people.
- Juliet suggests a sequel with Dempsey as the parent.
- Bill suggests an 8-episode prestige TV darker version where the girl wants to be popular, with Sam Levinson as EP and a murder cover-up twist. Patrick Dempsey and Sarah Michelle Gellar as the parents, Courtney Gaines as a teacher.
Philip Baker Hall as Ronnie's dad – hard yes.
'Easy A' or Secret Admirer.
Patrick Dempsey – this movie propelled his career and fueled nostalgia that contributed to his Grey's Anatomy casting. Coming out of the theater in 1987 it was Amanda Peterson, but 35 years later it's clearly Dempsey.
The 1986 Volkswagen Cabriolet.