When Parody Met Pop Culture – The Story of Not Another Teen Movie
Hollywood was obsessed with high schools during the early 2000s. The 90s gave us Clueless, American Pie, and She’s All That. Audiences developed a taste for slow-motion prom walks, emotionally charged confessions in the locker-room, and witty teenagers. Then came 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie, a movie that promised to parody those tropes and somehow became a part of the culture it was intending to mock.
The hype surrounding Not Another Teen Movie’s release was enormous. Teen comedies were at the height of their commercial success, and the idea of a movie that made fun of the rest was a breath of fresh air. It was marketed as the ultimate parody, as a movie that would “graduate” all teen movies for good. For high schoolers and college students, it was the movie event that reaffirmed their rebellion and recognition, as it was a film that ridiculed cliché scenarios they loved.
What Other Films Should Be Doing
Not Another Teen Movie is every bit a culmination of video clichés the title suggests. Directed by Joel Gallen, the picture features every cliché of the genre. She’s All That, the critic’s favourite target of clichés, is a direct intertext. Jake Wyler, the jock, accepts a dare to turn the “ugly girl,” Janey Briggs (Chyler Leigh), into prom queen material.
Not Another Teen Movie has the courage to parody the genre by taking excess to its logical conclusion. That is, while other parodies hold back, this one embraces the excess of too much material to become a parody. The sign is a love letter, a parody, or both? The other films in the genre include 10 Things I Hate About You, American Pie, Can’t Hardly Wait, Varsity Blues, and Pretty in Pink. The effect is one of a self-loathing, self-indulgent film.
Each scene is a wink to the audience. A “token black friend” says they’re “only here to say supportive stuff.” A “sensitive” football player reads “poetry” in the “locker room.” A popular girl experiences a “slow motion walk” because duh, every popular girl in the early 2000s did. Each popular girl also had a “slow motion walk” in the early 2000s. And the “soundtrack” featuring Marilyn Manson, Wheatus, and Good Charlotte “is” a nod to the “musical” mood of “teen” “rebellion.” “Chris Evans Before the Shield” For most modern audiences, it’s hard to imagine Chris Evans without the Captain America suit. But in 2001, he was just starting out. Not Another Teen Movie was his first starring role and he confined to the Hollywood “mainstream.” For Evans, “Jake” was a role made to showcase perfect comic timing. He was the “charming” but “clueless” jock who somehow remains “likable” despite being the “butt” of every “joke.” What made his performance memorable was his ability to treat the silliest of lines with “sincerity.” He was “mocking” the “archetype” but never “sneering” at it.
Upon reflection, Evans is quoted saying the film was underselling the potential showcased with his dominance on screen well ahead of his Marvel films or serious features like Snowpiercer. A significant portion of his fan base sees his parody of the “heartthrob jock” as a warm-up to what was to come; to many, he is now a quintessential American sweetheart, in stark contrast to his earlier roles, and a moral anchor to a Marvel film every summer.
Chyler Leigh’s performance as Janey Briggs in Not Another Teen Movie was critical in grounding the film in something more humane. For a film that jibes at a number of clichés, her role contained the faintest emotional thread of the “makeover” girl who just wants to be seen, and, thus, was the personification of the trope. In the fervor of the surrounding chaos, her subtle humor, and the character’s hopeless emotional state, Leigh’s Janey was chaotic and relatable.
Before Not Another Teen Movie, Leigh was in a number of smaller television roles and, reportedly, in a difficult period of her life. She later referred to that time as trying to find her niche in a fragmented Hollywood, a time compounded by ill health, and the early pressure of fame. After a period of relative obscurity in film, Leigh found lasting success on television with Grey’s Anatomy and Supergirl.
Leigh captured Janey as slightly clumsy, uncertain, yet persistent, which vividly resonated with her own experiences as an actress confronting the many challenges posed by the unpredictability of the Hollywood film industry.
Divided critical responses to the film
Readers of the culture press at the time could view Not Another Teen Movie as a cultural Rorschach test. Some hailed the film, even lauding it as the best teen parody film ever made, while others dismissed it as crude, immature, and excessively vulgar. The film’s critics were also split, yet many were in agreement over the film’s highly sensitive cultural montage.
The film was appreciated by the target audiences of the teen films it parodied, such as American Pie and Bring It On, as they instantly recognized and appreciated the humor. This target audience of teen films greatly appreciated the parody’s depiction of high school romance, locker-room bravado, and pep rallies. However, many older audience members and critics did not appreciate that the film was not just a parody of teen films, but also captured the emotional realities of adolescence. Nostalgia was a strong undercurrent flowing in the parody, in the vision of a hyper emotional high school milieu crafted by Hollywood in the preceding decade.
This film pushes boundaries in tone and humor. An R rating suggests that there are no limits to craziness. People laughed, but this rating also stirred outrage. Parental organizations cited it as a “bad influence,” and some schools allegedly prohibited showing its advertising. Nevertheless, the controversy increased its desirability to the target audience. It was the movie to watch with friends to remain a part of the discourse.
Class Clown Style of Working
There were and have always been the most pressing of distractions in the working of Joel Gallen and the rest of his team. There was very little time and every little budget, and the studio wanted to act on the viral success of Scary Movie. There are testimonies of the crew describing the nights of the shift as “working with the hands of the clock,” describing the “writers frantic and hopeless attempt of the rear to speed the clock with references and jokes.”
There was a need to find the right comical oil to outrage the people. Gallen’s help was the TV sketch comedy but the cast recounts that the most plicable part was “the detention of the comedians.” This is where the most clasical lines were taken. This includes the most Jessed Gallen “slow clap” scene that was re-improvised in a manner to restructure the comically reclined around the “improv”.
The most well-known anecdotes come from the sequence involving the cafeteria during a sweltering heatwave. The crew filmed on a high school set that did not have air conditioning. Extras passed out. Food props overheated. Nonetheless, the crew persevered as the studio did not allow any extra shooting days. “We were delirious by the end,” one assistant recalled, “but somehow, that delirium fit the movie’s tone perfectly, and was useful.”
The Legacy of a Ridiculous Classic
Few would have expected that Not Another Teen Movie would outlast the very genre it set out to mock, or the teen films of the late 90s and early 2000s. The film was more than a parody; it captured a moment in time. It is now a key 90s film, and no longer offers shock value, but it does provide sharp cultural commentary.
For younger fans coming to the film now, it is a time capsule, with flip phones, frosted hair, and cameos from now-famous actors. It also serves as a cultural artifact from a time when comedy could unapologetically ridicule its own audience, and where audience participation was encouraged.
For Chris Evans, it marked the beginning of a career trajectory beyond anyone’s expectations. For Chyler Leigh, it became a lesson in persevering through difficult times. For everyone who experienced the wave of high school movies, Not Another Teen Movie is, and will always be, a cheeky and garish reminiscence of a generation, an era that had gathered the spirit to chuckle at its own caricature.