What A Difference 20 Years Makes

20 years ago today, the Walt Disney Company released its adaptation of High Fidelity, a romantic comedy starring John Cusack, Jack Black, Todd Louiso, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, and more. I’ve grown to like the Nick Hornby novel more than the film (watching it again for my now-finished podcast, Mousterpiece Cinema, I was more repelled by Rob than I think even the movie wants me to be), but they’re both solid.

I mention it here because the Walt Disney Company of 2000 releasing an R-rated romantic comedy from a British director felt pretty normal. The year before, Disney had released films such as The Insider, Cradle Will Rock, and Summer of Sam. This was a Walt Disney Company that worked with some of the best living American filmmakers on challenging stories. The Walt Disney Company of today inherited those films, but not the spirit that inspired their creation. Spike Lee works independently, Michael Mann has worked mostly with Universal of late, and Martin Scorsese (whose Kundun was a Touchstone Pictures release) isn’t planning on a return to Disney anytime soon, I imagine.

It’s funny to think about how High Fidelity, the TV series, nearly made its way onto Disney+. The show eventually was shifted to Hulu — unlike a few of the other Disney+-to-Hulu transitions, this one makes a lot of sense. (I’ll be writing about this in more length at a separate outlet soon enough.) But it’s also a reminder that there was once a time when Disney took a lot more chances creatively, by using separate distribution units not to boost pre-existing intellectual property but to maintain a sense of breadth and depth in American cinema.

Alas.

Your Recommendation for Today

I debated between a couple of options here, because there are a couple of notable anniversaries today. Today is the 115th birthday of Robert Stevenson, the journeyman director who made a ton of Disney live-action fare in the 1960s and 1970s, everything from Mary Poppins to The Love Bug to some truly execrable live-action comedies. But listen, I shouldn’t have to recommend that you watch Mary Poppins. It’s Mary effing Poppins.

I would have pointed you to one of my favorite Disney shorts, which premiered 76 years ago today: Donald Duck and the Gorilla. I say “would have”, but fun fact: it’s not on Disney+. (I have no idea why.)

Instead, I will recommend a film that is on Disney+, and also celebrates an anniversary today: 10 Things I Hate About You, a genuinely charming teen comedy that’s also a fun riff on The Taming of the Shrew. In spite of the inherently misogynistic underpinnings of the story, this refresh is funny, smart, and incredibly well-cast. No one could have known that Heath Ledger’s career would have been cut cruelly short back in 1999, but his rise to stardom makes perfect sense. He’s oozing with chemistry, wit, and spunk.

So too is Julia Stiles, another actor who just leaps off the screen here. It’s just a crazy cast top to bottom, from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David Krumholtz to Alison Janney and Larry Miller as two of the adult performers. Not a perfect teen movie, but one of the standouts of the genre.