She’s The Man

I happened to see this movie trailer for the teen comedy “She’s The Man” posted on Apple’s movie trailer site, and I realized quickly after reading the names of the characters that this is a modern re-telling of my very favorite Shakespeare play ever — Twelfth Night. I read the play in high school English class, after I knew I was gay but before I was comfortable telling other people that, and I was fascinated by the cross-dressing aspect of the play. Hey, there wasn’t exactly any healthy gay teen literature around at the time, so I took what I could get.

So… is this movie going to piss me off by screwing up my favorite play? Is the movie going to piss me off by portraying tomboys in an unfavorable light? It has Amanda Bynes in it, who is a great young comedic actress, so that’s a point in it’s favor. But she plays the cross-dressing Viola, and she’s not exactly convincing. A large part of that is the hair; she needed a way-better hair cut. But I’ll see it anyway. It looks silly-fun.