10 Things I Hate About You

This classic teen comedy that launched the careers of Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles offers up a million things to love while putting a ‘90s spin on the work of William Shakespeare. New kid in school Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is smitten with the beautiful Bianca (Larisa Oleynik). The problem is that Bianca isn’t allowed to date unless her surly older sister Kat (Stiles) does. Cameron’s only hope is to enlist the help of Patrick (Ledger), the school troublemaker with a reputation as nasty as Kat’s.  But the self-assured Kat’s already got a lot on her plate, including an over-protective father, trying to get into a good college, and dealing with classmates who don’t really understand her. Will Patrick and Kat find true love, or will she find more than 10 things she hates about him? Inspired by Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, and featuring a gallery of colorful supporting characters (including Allison Janney as a crazed guidance counselor), 10 Things I Hate About You is a quirky and inventive comedy that uses The Bard’s classic “battle of the sexes” story as a jumping-off point to playfully satirize a society that doesn’t seem to know what to do with a strong woman. (Dir. by Gil Junger, 1999, USA, 97 mins., Rated PG-13)