Never Been Kissed
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| Never Been Kissed | |
|---|---|
 Poster for the film |
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| Directed by | Raja Gosnell |
| Produced by | Sandy Isaac Nancy Juvonen |
| Written by | Marc Silverstein Abby Kohn |
| Starring | Drew Barrymore David Arquette Marley Shelton Michael Vartan Molly Shannon John C. Reilly Garry Marshall Leelee Sobieski Jessica Alba Jeremy Jordan |
| Music by | David Newman |
| Cinematography | Alex Nepomniaschy |
| Editing by | Debra Chiate Marcel Sansevieri |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | April 9, 1999 |
| Running time | 107 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25,000,000[1] |
| Gross revenue | $84,565,230[1] |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Never Been Kissed is a 1999 comedy directed by Raja Gosnell and starring Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Michael Vartan, Molly Shannon, Leelee Sobieski, John C. Reilly, Jessica Alba, Marley Shelton, James Franco, Giuseppe Andrews, Jeremy Jordan and Garry Marshall. Never Been Kissed was produced by Drew Barrymore's production company, Flower Films.
Taglines:
- The class clown just turned chic.
- A comedy with class.
- She's never been hip. Never been cool. Never been in... until now.
- Some things are worth waiting for.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
The main characters include:
- Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore) - A 25-year-old copy editor who works for the Chicago Sun-Times; and who is assigned to go undercover at a local high school for her first story. Unfortunately, Josie's high school years were marked with cruelty from other students and the scar of her nickname "Josie-Grossie". At first, she becomes a Denominater and she is considered a geek. When Rob tells everyone that she is actually amazing, everyone starts to like her.
- Sam Coulson (Michael Vartan) - A young, attractive English teacher at the high school in which Josie enrolls. He develops feelings for her throughout the movie, but cannot act on them because he is her teacher. He kisses Josie in the end, after he reads the article she wrote about him.
- Rob Geller (David Arquette) - Josie's younger brother; who, in contrast to Josie, was popular during his high school years and uses what he knows about popularity to help Josie in her assignment. Drew Barrymore and David Arquette were both in the movie Scream together. David Arquette's character in the movie as previously mentioned, is Rob Geller. David Arquette's real-life wife, Courtney Cox is most known for portraying Monica Geller on the TV series Friends.
- Augustus "Gus" Strauss (John C. Reilly) - Josie's superior who only really seems to care about his career.
- Aldys Martin (Leelee Sobieski) - One of Josie's only friends at the High School when she starts. She is considered by most of the popular people a "Science Geek". At the prom, she almost gets dog food thrown at her as a prank. Leelee Sobieski (Aldys) and James Franco (Jason Way) would both later appear in the film The Wicker Man.
- Guy Perkins (Jeremy Jordan) - The most popular guy in school. He is at first very rude to Josie, but then when she gets popular, he is very nice to her. He later asks her to the prom. In 1993, at the age of 20, Jeremy Jordan (Guy) released a gold-selling album entitled Try My Love. Jordan was a real-life heartthrob, who was featured in teen magazines.
- Gibby, Kirsten, and Kristen (Jordan Ladd, Jessica Alba, Marley Shelton) - The three most popular girls in the school who are very conceited and only think of themselves. They all dress up as Barbie for the prom.
- Anita (Molly Shannon) - Josie's friend who works with her at the paper. She loves sleeping with men even if she doesn't like them.
- About half hour in, there is a cut scene of the math team's activities. The approximation of Pi is wrong.
[edit] Plot
Barrymore plays 25-year-old Josie Geller, a one-time high school misfit turned pedantic and lonely copy-editor for the Chicago Sun-Times. Josie desperately wants to be a reporter, and constantly sends story ideas to her boss, Gus (John C. Reilly). One day during a staff meeting, the tyrannical editor-in-chief, Rigfort (Garry Marshall) assigns her to report undercover at a high school. At first, despite her best efforts and the support of her best friend at the paper, Anita (Molly Shannon), Josie reverts back to her geeky, misfit, high school persona, and becomes friends with fellow geek Aldys (Leelee Sobieski). However, after counselling by her brother, Rob (and with the benefit of hindsight of her original high school career), Josie learns how to let go of the who she was in highschool.
A subplot involving the attraction between Josie (who has never had a romance) and young English teacher Sam Coulson is complicated by the fact that Sam thinks Josie is 17-years-old and a student, and therefore out of bounds.
The premise of the film is loosely based on the real-life undercover work of Shann Nix, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who posed as a high school student to uncover the conditions in inner-city schools in San Francisco. [2] Unlike the fictional character, Nix was not unpopular in high school, and never had a romantic connection with a teacher when she went undercover. The movie is a remake of The Major and the Minor.
[edit] Soundtrack
- During the scene where Josie and Aldys are talking to each other on the football field, the band begins to play the theme song from The Simpsons.
- The band Spring Heeled Jack U.S.A. submitted a song named "Josie" for the movie's soundtrack but it was rejected. The band had previously released a single titled "Jolene" which was about their tour van. When given the opportunity to submit a song for the soundtrack, they simply replaced the name Jolene with Josie to make it relevant to Barrymore's character in the film.
- When the main character is remembering her old ages in the school; in the background you can listen to Madonna's song "Like a Prayer", from her album Like a Prayer.
- The single "Lucky Denver Mint" by Jimmy Eat World featured in the film's soundtrack, and was the only single from their album Clarity to consequently gain airplay on popular American radio.
- A significant amount of the song "Heaven Tonight" by Hole appears in the film.
- The Latin funk band Ozomatli makes a cameo.
- During the climax, in the scene when Josie receives her first kiss from Sam on the baseball field, the song "Don't Worry Baby" by The Beach Boys is played.
- While Josie and the teacher are dancing, you can hear in the background "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" by The Smiths.
- Towards the end of the movie, at the prom night while the prom queen dances with the prom king you can hear "Erase/Rewind" by The Cardigans in the background.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Never Been Kissed. boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-13.
- ^ My American Dream. dailypost.co.uk.
