10 Things I Hate About You

The movie benefits from appealing performers and some genuinely fresh and funny dialogue. Comedian Larry Miller is terrific as the girls' father, overprotective because their mother abandoned the family and because as an obstetrician he sees too many pregnant teenagers. But the teachers in 10 Things I Hate About You are more juvenile than the kids, including a guidance counselor more concerned with writing a very steamy novel than with the behavior and well-being of the students, an English teacher who insults the kids and is arbitrary with discipline, and a soccer coach who is all but comatose at the sight of a girl's breasts, which she flashes to distract him from a boy's escape from detention.

Parents should also know that there are a great many references to sex, even by the standards of teen comedies, and there is a wild party with teen drinking and smoking, and brief references to drug use. On the positive side, the heroines demonstrate a very healthy attitude and strong self-esteem, defending their hearts and their bodies very capably. One admits to having had a bad sexual experience in 9th grade, then deciding she was not ready for sexual involvement, and learning to think for herself in the future. And when one of the characters decides to drink tequila at a party, she ends up dancing in an embarassing fashion and then throwing up in front of the boy she likes.